Teana's Travels Book 20: Ancient Worlds
by D.K.N
Summary: The Dimensional Defense Force returns to Belka, seeking anything that could help them against their Great Enemy. Eventually, they find their way to another, older world that has just as many old secrets. On these two planets, they learn truths, fight threats, and Teana has to deal with an old classmate who loves pushing her buttons. MEGA-CROSSOVER. M for Violence & Language
1. Belka

**THE FOLLOWING THINGS ARE THE PROPERTIES OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS; I DO NOT OWN THEM AND MAKE NO MONEY OFF OF THIS VENTURE**

_Mahō Shōjo Lyrical Nanoha _(Teana, various other characters) – 7Arcs

_Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni _(Shion, the "Keiichi Crew") – 07th Expansion and Studio Deen

_Shuffle! _(Kaede Fuyō, Rin, Asa & Ama, Sia & Nerine, Primula) – Navel and Asread

_Erika's New Perfume _(Marie, Sarah, Erika, Timmy, Veronica) – Deviant-Art artist Lance the Young

_Mai-chan's Daily Life _(Mai, Kizuna) – Waita Uziga

_Star Wars _(Ahsoka, Cody, Rex, _Force Unleashed_ cast) – George Lucas, Lucasfilm

_Halo _(Forerunners, UNSC, Sangheili Alliance) – Bungie and 343 Industries

_StarCraft _(multiple characters, events, and devices) – Blizzard Entertainment

_Naruto _(jutsu, abilities) – Masashi Kishimoto

_Mahō Sensei Negima _(spells, abilities, characters) – Ken Akamatsu

_Kingdom Hearts _(Keyblades, Heartless, Nobodies, Unversed, Aqua, other characters and concepts) – Square-Enix

_Neon Genesis Evangelion_ (Mana Kirishima, other characters) – Studio Gainax

_Elfen Lied _(Kaede K., others) – Lynn Okamoto, Arms

_Red vs. Blue _(The Blood-Gulch Crew, the ex-Freelancers) – Rooster Teeth

_My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic _– Hasbro, Lauren Faust

_Transformers Film Series_** – **Hasbro, Michael Bay

_Transformers: Beast Wars _– Hasbro, Mainframe Entertainment

_Bishōjo Senshi Sailor Moon _– Naoko Takeuchi

_Digimon _– Google and Wikipedia won't tell me who presently owns this franchise

_Yu-Gi-Oh!_ – Kazuki Takahashi, Viz Media

_Sonic the Hedgehog _- SEGA

_Gears of War _– Epic Games

_Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles _– Columbia Tristar (I think)

_Mass Effect _– Bioware

_Metroid_ - Nintendo

_Puella Magi Madoka Magica _**– **Gen Urobuchi, SHAFT

The concept of the Alicorn Pantheon is the brainchild of DeviantArtist Alex Warlorn, much like Golden Tiara; I have been given explicit permission by him/her to use them in this story (just like Golden), though I have made alterations to slightly differentiate the DDF Timeline from the Pony POV Timeline(s).

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE & CHARACTER PAGES

**-****_BOOK 20 START_****-**

**Realm LN-34 (TSAB's Home Realm)**

**Oberon Sector, Talcus System, Belka, 15KM from Ruins of Provincial Capital**

**12:30 Hours**

The small DDF fleet currently stationed above the world was joined by several new arrivals. Several dropships and other transports descended upon the TSAB-led coalition base stationed on the planet. As they set down and disembarked their passengers, everyone gathered in the main courtyard. And what a gathering it was; Gamma, Sigma, & Theta Teams, 'Group Nanoha' (her, the Testarossas (including Alicia with a new familiarly-shaped silver triangular pendant around her neck), Yūno, Hayate & the Wolkenritter, Reinforce, and a few others), Blood-Gulch & Lancer Teams, the _Puellae Magi_, Team Shepard, Delta Squad, the Equestria Group (the Harmony Element bearers, plus Spike, Golden Tiara, Trixie, Shining Armor, and Cadence), Team Marek (Galen Marek, Master Kota, and Lt. Eclipse), and Zeratul. What's more, there was a possibility of others showing up later as needed (though also of currently-present individuals departing for other assignments).

The DDF teams were to take turns scouring different sections of Belka for whatever was supposed to help them against their daemonic foe; all the firepower present was out of anticipation of interference by the Dark Voice or Xehanort, and caution of anything Scaglietti might've left behind. People were already settling into groups to mingle, with leaders meeting to discuss and plan.

"Fate! Laicixa!"

Alicia, presently in her 9-year-old form, ran over to her two 'sisters'. "I've finally got a Device of my own!" she said, a big grin on her face.

"Really?" Laicixa asked. "Let's see it, then."

Alicia nodded, pulling the silver triangle off of her necklace and holding it high. "Lochaber, Set Up!"

There was a burst of blue light surrounding the girl, and when it faded she stood in her new Barrier Jacket. It was the same design as Fate's old one when she was that small, but with the black replaced by white, the red replaced by blue, the skirt was hot pink instead of pale pink, and her hair-bows were sky-blue. Her Device looked a great deal like Bardiche and Voulge, but with a slightly different blade shape, and it was silvery white with a blue gem/Core.

"Neat, huh?" she said as she gave Lochaber a twirl. "And it's got a Keyblade mode like Bardiche, so I won't have to steal Sign of Innocence from you whenever I wanna fight Heartless anymore."

"That's good" Fate said with a smile. After a few seconds of looking down at her child-form 'sisters', she muttered "Oh, all right" and concentrated, her body becoming a glowing silhouette and then shrinking down. When the transformation faded, she was in her own 9-year-old form, and Alicia promptly pulled her & Laicixa into a hug. Nearby, Precia stood by with a smile as she watched her daughters interact.

'I was such a blind fool…' she thought to herself. 'If I could somehow meet the me of the past who caused Fate such harm, I'd beat that other me to within an inch of her life.'

A little ways away, the Equestria group gathered around Cadence.

"I've got two big pieces of news for you, everyone" she said to her little audience. "Firstly, you are likely all aware of how the humans from the planet Sera, the remnants of the 'Coalition of Ordered Governments', has been seeking a new world to call home for the time being, as Sera is too badly environmentally damaged to support long-term human habitation for several decades without extensive aid being brought in from offworld. Well, I'm pleased to report they've found a place to call home. Their leadership has been in extensive talks with ours, and after a great deal of consideration, and with the blessing of my sisters, they have chosen to settle on Equestria."

A few shocked gasps rang out.

"Celestia has set aside a sizable chunk of unpopulated territory for the C.O.G. and their civilians to live in, where they will construct cities and bases (while adhering to environmental and anti-pollution guidelines, of course), including a slipspace translocation link to Sera, so they can come & go as needed. In exchange, they'll be helping our people gradually and properly assimilate the technological advances that the DDF will give us access to, and will also assist in defending Equestria from any threats, which is good, because the Caprastians and the Hooviets have been acting suspiciously as of late… And yes, Celestia and Luna are well aware of the morally reprehensible actions taken by the COG's leadership in the decades past, but every last one of those truly responsible is long dead, and the present members are just as disgusted by their predecessor's actions."

"W-What's the other big news?" Fluttershy asked.

"…Celestia and Luna have been working on something big – like, "development of the millennium" big. They've been working with that Forerunner Forge-World the Phoenix League has, and with the tech and data recovered from Onyx, as well as with the TSAB and Mundus Magicus' finest minds, and even a little help from that Forerunner A.I. on The Ark. In secret, they ran some tests, refined things, and yesterday they quietly applied the result, doing the thought-to-be-impossible and repairing magical 'damage' that has been in place for over a millennium. …Although they will still be the diarchs and rulers of the kingdom, there is one 'crucial' function which my sisters no longer need to perform. As of yesterday, for the first time in over 1,300 years, our planet is revolving under its own power."

This time, the shock was much stronger, and a few ponies almost fainted. For over 1,300 years, Celestia and Luna had "raised the Sun and Moon" (modern ponies actually perfectly understood the heliocentric nature of their star system; it was just easier to explain it the 'old' way to small children); that was just how things went. It was not common knowledge, though, that the reason Equestria couldn't turn on its own was due to damage accidentally dealt by the chaos spirit Discord long ago. And now, that damage had actually been _repaired_?-!

"Unbelievable…" Applejack muttered.

"And…" Cadence continued, "There's one last surprise. Due to this fixing of the world's 'wound', and thanks to two-way transdimensional communication hologram tech donated by the Systems Alliance and TSAB to enable them to attend any necessary meetings with nobles and such back home…" She gestured to a large sphere of golden light that suddenly appeared nearby. "They will both be able to join us on this adventure."

The cross-realm teleportation sphere faded, revealing Celestia & Luna. Immediately the non-alicorn ponies either bowed or saluted.

"So this is Belka…" Celestia said. "The climate's in better shape than I expected."

"It's had a few centuries to fix itself" replied Teana as she walked up. "I'm a bit surprised you'd choose to join us, ma'am."

"I love Equestria, but I've been stuck on that planet for over 3,000 years. I want to get out for a bit, stretch my wings a little, so to speak. I _am_ going back when this is done, and I can use holographic communication to manage things back home, but for now I feel that you'll need all three alicorns' power to help fight what's coming."

"Well, whatever the reason, we're happy to have you three aboard, Your Majesties."

Elsewhere in the courtyard, Ahsoka was talking with Kota and Marek, reminiscing with the older Jedi and meeting with Vader's former apprentice. The eight people of Delta Squad (Marcus, Dom, Baird, Cole, Jace, Anya, Sam(antha), and Clay Carmine) were scattered around a bit, but still in sight of each other; Dom briefly looked at his old knife, remembering how he had plunged it into Locust Queen Myyrah's chest… and then, thanks to Adam Fenix's data-disk, discovered the true origins of her and the Locust, how Sera had been devastated thanks to a horrible mistake made by COG officials who were dead of old age before any of Delta Squad were even born.

'Always knew there was even more to that New Hope facility than what Marcus & I saw…' he thought.

"So basically," Nanoha wondered, "our mission is to just spread out and start looking for clues all over Belka?"

"That's a simplified answer, but yes" Hayate replied. "Seeing as we don't really know what exactly we're looking for, it could take a while, but with the kind of luck we've had so far in things, we'll find something valuable eventually."

"Mistress?" Signum asked. "There's something that Shamal, Vita, and I would like to check. Is that okay? We won't be gone for more than a few hours."

"…I understand" Hayate said. "This was your homeworld, wasn't it? You girls take as much time as you need. You've earned that."

"Thank you" Signum bowed.

**-****_SCENE BREAK_****-**

**Ruins of Suburbs Near Provincial Capital**

**13:45 Hours**

Vita flew alone, low over the rows of ancient houses along an ancient street. Ever since Reinforce's return, fragments of old memories had started coming to her, including a tiny portion from before she was kidnapped from her old life and involuntarily bound to the Book of Darkness 440 years ago, back when she was a normal, mortal little girl.

Some of the buildings had collapsed, but the majority were remarkably intact given their age and centuries of no upkeep; a few were partially "reclaimed by nature", plants growing in and through them, but others weren't. However, as she neared her destination, she could see that her target house, the one on the corner, was one of the most intact and untouched of them all, by some stroke of fortune. As she set down on the walkway, she could sense the powerful preservation spell surrounding the property; someone had wanted this house to stay just as it was. She carefully walked up to the front porch, using a spark of magic to unlock the door, and she walked in.

Silence greeted her. The quiet, somewhat dusty hallway with dulled wallpaper brought to her mind a flash of memory, a brief image of the same hallway, from the same viewpoint, warm and welcoming. Slowly and carefully, she made her way down the short hallway, into the living room. She magically cleaned the soft old couch of dust and then sat down in it, looking around at the spacious room, lit by sunlight coming in through a window. Another brief flash of memory ran through her, of a bright and colorful version of this room, and – for a split-second – the memory of two voices, one a man's and one a woman's, both kind and happy. She had an ever-growing suspicion of whose voices they were, of what house this was, of why she was subconsciously drawn here.

"Could this really be…?" she murmured.

She wandered into the old kitchen, and another flash of memory hit her, this time with more voices.

'_Whatcha makin', daddy?_'

'_Your favorite, honey-bun_'

'_(Gasp) You mean…_'

'_Yep!_'

'_Yaaay!_'

The memory faded, and Vita felt a tightness in her chest that she couldn't fully understand. A quick scan by Graf Eisen confirmed there was nothing physically wrong with her; it was an unconscious, emotional reaction.

She left the kitchen, making her way down another hallway, deeper into the house, toward the bedrooms.

'_Mama, look! I've grown a little more!_'

'_So I see! And one day you'll be as tall as me, sweetie._'

With slow, small steps, Vita came up to a closed door. She reached out a trembling hand, grabbing the doorknob, and slowly opened the door. As her eyes took in the child's room within, the cracked dam finally broke completely, memories pouring out. Her head pounded as she fell to her knees, her Device slipping from her grasp, emotions surging up within her like a tsunami. The bed with cool red sheets, the collection of stuffed bunny plushies on the overhead shelf, the dollhouse in the corner, the memory of a sleepy little redhead five-year-old being carried in by a tall man with dark red hair and his auburn-haired wife, tucking the little girl in and kissing her goodnight, birthdays and vacations, comfort, safety, _family_. Atop the bed, in the gentle grasp of a big stuffed rabbit toy, were two 'jewels' – the result of a rare spell used by a few Belkan mages during the old days, which transformed their bodies upon death into small, indestructible, beautiful spherical gems, their Linker Cores crystallized. And there was a small slip of paper that the stuffed bunny sat in front of, with a single sentence written on it in Old Belkan:

'_We miss you, Vita_'.

The immortal little girl sank to the floor, tears streaming down her face. "Mom… Dad…" she sobbed out. "I-I'm home."

Hayate found her there soon after. The Mistress of the Night Sky Tome held her heartbroken little knight close for what felt like forever. When they finally left, having issued a command to the Bureau's team on this world to ensure the house's preservation spell remained intact, Vita was carrying a new stuffed rabbit, and an indestructible transparent case that held two sparkling gems.

**-****_SCENE BREAK_****-**

**Rocky Area 30KM Outside Capital**

**16:07 Hours**

A four-person team – Galen "Starkiller" Marek, Miyako Ishimura, Zeratul, and Trixie – made their way through the rocks. Thankfully, the climate was cool and the sky was cloudy, so they didn't have to worry too much about heat. From what they could tell, this used to be an old quarry, mining stones and the occasional minerals for various purposes; the rusty wreckage of automated mining machines was here and there. Everything seemed quiet and calm.

"So, what are we looking for?" Trixie asked.

"Nobody really knows" Galen replied. "It could be old tech, or a structure, or a tome of ancient lore, or anything, really. Right now, we're investigating on the off chance there's anything half-buried in this quarry. So keep your eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary."

"I t-thought a world that's been ravaged by war would be… creepier" Miyako said. "Battle scars, old bones, a f-foreboding atmosphere, stuff like that… Belka's almost homey, really."

"Be thankful you cannot sense the psychic imprints of what has transpired here, child" Zeratul replied.

"Yeah" Galen said. "Even after centuries of abandonment, I can still sense through the Force echoes of the death and pain and mass destruction that this world suffered. This planet's done what it can to heal from the damage, but… well, not all scars are physical."

They moved along, looking at everything. As they walked across the exact center of the quarry pit, however, a dark purple magic rune sprang up, at least 20 feet across, and the whole area darkened and faded in color as a dimension-shift barrier enveloped them. A powerful dark presence was suddenly felt, and a swirling dark portal appeared in the air a distance away.

"It's a trap!" Galen said.

"**_Now is as good a time as any to test out the creature I found slumbering in stasis_**" the Dark Voice said. "**_Those who created its kind dubbed them 'Jedi killers'. Let us see if it lives up to the name…_**"

Out of the portal dropped a huge bipedal creature. It was around 30 feet tall, with long, muscled arms tipped with four huge, curved claws on each hand, and two huge curving tusks emerging from either side of its mouth full of wicked fangs. Its eyes glowed red, and the spikes on its back crackled with Dark Side energy. The quartet readied themselves.

"W-What is it?" Miyako said, gripping her war-hammer. "It looks kind of like a rancor, but altered."

"It's much worse than a mutant rancor…" Galen growled. "I've seen these things in ancient Jedi history texts; it's a terentatek!"

The dark creature roared and lashed out with claws wreathed in Force Lightning, forcing the team to leap away.

"Terentateks are almost-completely immune to techniques of the Force," Galen explained, "and they can actually _gain_ power when hit by Dark Side attacks. Their hides are resistant to energy blades and blaster-fire, and they feed on the blood of Force-Sensitives. This might be tough."

Miyako conjured and fired a wave of ice missiles at the monster, detonating with concussive force and also freezing their impact points. However, the beast's sheer size and thick hide meant the attack did little damage, and it retaliated with a burst of darkness energy that Miyako narrowly dodged. Zeratul rushed in while the terentatek was distracted, slashing with his Void Blade at its leg, but the slash failed to do any serious deep damage, not severing the limb or even cutting the tendons, just leaving a glowing surface cut. It seemed Marek's warning of the beast's resistance to energy blades was correct. The creature tried to stomp Zeratul, who flipped back out of the way.

Trixie fired/threw a barrage of Lightning-chakra _senbon_, and managed to hit the terentatek's right eye. The monster roared and thrashed around a bit as it loosed a pulse of power that nearly knocked the quartet off their feet. It snarled and stared down at them, its field of vision now significantly reduced. It lowered its head and charged, tusks aimed to gore them, but Zeratul teleported himself and Trixie out of the way while Galen Force-dashed to the side and Miyako leapt up; the _Puella Magi_ then landed atop the beast, grabbing hold of one of the spikes on its back with one hand and bringing her hammer down on the back of its head with the other. The magic imbued within the weapon meant it struck with enough force to shatter a human's ribcage – or in this case, fracture a huge monster's thick skull – despite being swung one-armed by a 14-year-old girl, stunning the terentatek and leaving it open to a mighty swing of Galen's lightsaber that managed to chop off one of its tusks. It roared in pain and anger and tried to gore him with the other tusk, but he had already leapt away again.

The wounded Sith war-beast staggered to its feet, swinging a lightning-wreathed claw at Zeratul (it missed, due to its now-impaired depth perception) and shaking Miyako off of its back. Trixie's body flared with a crackling blue aura as she used her newest technique, _Raiton no Yoroi_; she couldn't yet crank it up as high as the Raikage could, but it still gave her a significant increase in speed, strength, and durability. She flashed in, dealing a blow that cracked the terentatek's left tusk almost all the way through and knocked its head to the side hard enough to almost give it whiplash. Zeratul Void-Jumped up and performed a gravity-assisted swing of his blade that finished the job, the heavy bone weapon hitting the ground. The now-tuskless terentatek breathed a stream of Darkness at the old Protoss, whose shields held long enough for him to Jump out to safety.

As Galen distracted the beast, Zeratul moved in again, slashing at the leg he damaged earlier. This time, he managed to cut the tendon, forcing the terentatek to kneel. Trixie, using a combination of her strength-boosting lightning aura and her natural physical strength (which was _much_ higher than the Equestria-wide unicorn average), dealt a blow that broke the arm it was leaning on, and as its face fell forward it took a rising hammer-swing from Miyako, breaking its jaw and stunning it. When it landed on its front, Galen quickly drove both of his blades straight down into its skull, piercing its brain and finally killing it.

"The average run-of-the-mill Jedi probably wouldn't have survived a fight against this thing" Galen said. "Fortunately, I'm not an average Jedi, and I wasn't fighting alone. Come on, guys; let's go back to base and let the others know what we ran into."

**-****_SCENE BREAK_****-**

**Main Base**

**18:30 Hours**

[AN: Tip for better understanding of this section; (re)read the synopsis of how Celestia and (eventually) Cadence came to Equestria in Book 15, Chapter 3]

"Princess… Is something wrong?"

Celestia startled a bit (thought she didn't let it show) as her faithful student spoke up behind her. She turned to face Twilight, who had a curious and slightly worried expression on her face.

"Whatever do you mean, Twilight?" she asked.

"You've been a little… on edge ever since you got here. It's like you're constantly on high alert for an ambush – a little more than everyone else is, that is. What's wrong?"

Celestia sighed; she figured it was time to finally fess up, at least to a small group of trusted individuals. "I'll tell you, Twilight, but not right now. Could you find my sisters and the other Element-Bearers? I want to explain everything to all of you at once, and Cadence can help me explain."

"Cadence knows whatever it is that's bothering you, but Luna doesn't?"

"That's correct."

"Um… Alright. I'll go fetch everyone, then."

15 minutes later, the Equestria Group gathered in a quiet room of the groundside base. And Celestia, with Cadence chiming in here & there, told them everything – how she, in her naïve, youthful impulsiveness, accidentally unleashed the Windigos on primitive Equestria in an attempt to "end all the hatred", how she hid on the planet when she realized what had happened, how the forging of the Fires of Friendship, which destroyed the Windigos and truly ended the feuding, triggered war between her people and another which called themselves 'the Draconequi', how she realized what had happened and hid further on Equestria, the forming of The Veil, Cadence sending Luna down to the world as the Veil formed, Cadence wandering the stars for millennia until finding Equestria 16 years before Nightmare Moon's unsealing…

"I made a horrible mistake," Celestia said, "one that triggered a war between deities that ravaged the cosmos. I know that if my family were to ever find me… I cannot imagine what they will do to me as retaliation. The Veil keeps Equestria safe from them – keeps _me_, and Cadence, and Luna safe. But this planet, this dimension, while nominally outside of our family's domain and that of the Draconequi, is also outside The Veil. _That_ is why I am so 'jumpy' here."

The group was stunned silent.

"…Why do I not remember any of this?" Luna asked.

Celestia turned to face her sister. "Our Father punished Luna for helping me by reverting her into an infant. He likely intended to restore her memories and self once a certain amount of time had elapsed. But the war made that impossible. When Cadence sent Luna to me, to within The Veil, to protect her from the war… Only Mother or Father could restore Luna's mind and memory. I lacked – and still lack – the ability to do so, and the allotted time for our parents to do so has long, long since passed. Luna… Your current self's memories, your mind, your soul, are so deeply entrenched, so vast and matured, that an attempt to restore to you your previous self's memories would utterly destroy your mind, and that of any potential future incarnations of you. Essentially, the 'old' Luna is dead – our Father inadvertently killed her. You have her power, her domain, and to a certain degree her appearance, but not her memories, her soul. You are the previous Luna's… well, 'reincarnation' is the closest approximation, though it is not a 100% match for the concept of what was and is."

"A-And…" Twilight spoke up. "You have no idea of what's happening outside the Veil – what's become of your family?"

"That is correct. It has been over 3,000 years. I do not know if they all lived through the war, or if they all 'died' and their next reincarnations now exist. I do not know if they eagerly await my return with open arms, or still seek to find a way to destroy me. I know absolutely nothing about what has transpired in the 'Pantheon' since The Veil was erected."

"And the same goes for me" Cadence added. "I haven't the foggiest idea what has become of our siblings or parents in the three millennia since."

"…Hold on" Rainbow Dash said. "You and your family are essentially deities, but you keep mentioning the possibility of 'dying'. What's up with that?"

"Of our family, only our Mother and Father are truly immortal. The rest of us are simply very, very long-lived and very difficult to kill. In most cases, if an Alicorn 'dies', they will be reincarnated with memories intact, though there are also rare instances of an Alicorn's reincarnation being different enough from previous to be considered a truly separate incarnation, with only some – perhaps even only a few – memories inherited; in the 12 billion years since the Pantheon came into existence, shortly after the universe became capable of sustaining life, there have been eight Celestias before me, 11 Lunas before the current one, and nine Cadences before the one here now. Time flows… differently in the astral plane, so I cannot accurately tell you how old in thousands, millions, or billions of years I or my two present sisters truly are. There is only one member of the family besides our parents who has never 'died' or been reincarnated, the only one who may very well be truly immortal like our Parents, and that is the eldest brother, Mortis."

"How many siblings do you have?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Who are they, anyway – like, can you tell us anything about them?"

"Yes," Luna added, "I would also like to hear a little about the family I did not know I had."

"And that may no longer be there, depending on how the war against Havoc & Entropy's children went" Cadence replied to Luna.

Celestia cleared her throat, reacquiring her two younger siblings' attention. "Each of us represents a set of Concepts. …I should probably start with our Parents" she said to her attentive audience. "They are as old as the universe… or, at least, as old as _our_ universe. Their power and presence are so vast that they are physically incapable of manifesting in the physical realm, lest they tear fatal, galaxy-sized holes in reality itself, though they can manifest through avatars. They are what is called 'multiversal singularities'; I'll explain that concept another time. Our Mother, who is named Fauna Luster, is the personification of the Concepts of empathy and of existence. Our Father, who has many names but is known by most mortal ponies as Ouranos, is the Concept of wisdom, sanity, and truth, and is also the [author-can't-think-of-a-word] of our universe's Heaven… though rumors, which neither He nor Mother have ever confirmed or denied, persist of an even higher multiversal singularity to whom He and Mother answer, who is the [author's-lacking-vocabulary] of _all_ Heavens and of the entire Multiverse itself…

"As for our siblings, or at least the ones who were there when I left… There is our brother Puerilis, the Concept of comedy, humor, foolishness, innocence, and potential; our sister Abbatissa, Concept of prayer and of balance between conscience and instinctual decisions; sister Imperatrix, who represents nurturing, lust, and female dominance, and her twin Princeps, who is the Concept of authority, order, and male dominance; sister Venus, Concept of love; brother Currus, Concept of honor, courage, conquest, and status quo; sister Justitia, Concept of justice and law; brother Eremo, Concept of knowledge and distance; sister Rota Fortuna, one of the oldest of us, Concept of fate, cause & effect, consequences, and free will; brother Leo, Concept of power given purpose, gravity, force, and breaking barriers; brother Pensilis, Concept of self-sacrifice, will to survive, and redemption; brother Mortis, Concept of death, rebirth, and change, strongest of us in battle and the only one of us to still be on his first incarnation, from when our Concepts were first given life by our Parents; brother Turris, Concept of barriers, divisions, and unbreakable defense; sister Galaxia, Concept of stars, healing, and renewal; and brother Judicium, Concept of balance, judgment, and fair say. …There is also Morning Star, the Fallen One, Concept of evil and temptation. He turned against our Parents, believing himself more perfect than them, and tried to conquer reality. He was defeated and sealed away in Hell, though he broke out on the side of the Draconequi in the war; I know not what became of him."

"Wow…" Pinkie Pie said. "And I thought my Aunt Quartz had a big family!"

"…There _was_ one more…" Cadence said sadly. Celestia's expression changed to match.

"Yes…" she said softly. "Amicitia, Concept of magic, friendship, and happy endings. Around 4,500 years ago, something terrible happened. No-one knows exactly how, but… she was killed for real, her soul joining those in Father's domain. When I was a child, she was… well, my relationship with hers was essentially the same as yours with Cadence, Twilight."

"It's kinda funny…" Cadence spoke up. "My and her first Incarnations actually did battle once, when the universe was young, but her last self and I were very close friends; she taught me a lot."

The two were silent for a bit.

"S-So, uh…" Spike spoke up, trying to get the princesses' minds off the depressing subject. "What are you three's Concepts?"

"I am the Concept of harmony, temperance, and music" Cadence replied. "Celestia is the Concept of the Sun, daytime, energy, optimism, and accomplishment. And Luna is the Concept of the Moon, nighttime, inspiration, dreams, illusions, and fantasy."

"This has certainly been… enlightening" Twilight said. "And Princess… I don't hold the Windigos against you. You were young, desperate to end the fighting, and it did work out okay in the end, right?"

"Knowing that my previous self essentially sacrificed herself to ensure you safe passage to our world, sister…" Luna said to Celestia. "I am alright with that. If it came down to it, I would gladly do the same. …Now, come. Let us partake in the consuming of sugary treats to chase away the unpleasant thoughts still plaguing your mind."

"I'm game for that plan!" Cadence said.

**-****_CHAPTER END_****-**

Next Time: A battle, a Keyblade, and an old classmate of Teana's who she really wishes hadn't shown up


	2. Searching

Yeah, uh… Remember the last chapter's "Next Time" synopsis, how it mentions a Keyblade? I've decided to move that particular plot thing to later in the book. Sorry!

SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE & CHARACTER PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Belka**

**Day 2 – 13:07 Hours**

The seven girls of Gamma Team walked into the base, returning from a demon-killing mission out in the nearby city ruins. So far, today had turned out to be just as fruitless as yesterday in terms of finding whatever they were looking for. What's more, the Dark Voice's minions had finally shown themselves, handfuls of Heartless, Unversed, and Demons popping up here & there.

"There's another 'shipment' of Bureau personnel supposed to be here today" Marie said. "I think it's some specialists along with a handful of soldiers; hopefully they'll help us find whatever it is we're looking for faster."

"I think they're already here, actually" Teana replied. "I've already spotted a couple of techs who weren't here when we left."

They came into the main lounge area, where Nanoha, Fate, Hayate & the Wolkenritter, and Theta & Sigma Teams already were. A dozen or so of the new arrivals were scattered about as well. Teana flopped down on one of the couches, next to Subaru, with Sarah then sitting on her other side.

"Man," Teana groaned as she arched her back in a stretch (making her assets stick out, to Subaru's quiet delight), "is it just me, or are we not really getting anywhere?"

"Well, we don't really know what we came here to find in the first place" Sarah replied.

"Which is stupid" Teana said. "How can we be going into something important without that sort of intel? Let's hope the eggheads can at least help us find out what we're looking for."

"Lanstar?" one of the new arrivals spoke up. "That you?"

She looked up as he started walking over. "Ha! It _is_ you!" he said with a grin. "Teana Lanstar! It's been a while!"

He had light-brown hair and dark-blue eyes, and a cocky, slightly mischievous look on his face. After a few seconds of staring at him, Teana's expression changed to one of annoyed recognition.

"Oh no…" she grumbled, resting her face in her hands. "Not him… Please, Saint, don't let _him_ be here after all these years…"

"Aw, c'mon, Tia! Is that any way to greet an old buddy? I'm hurt."

"You are not my _buddy_, Terrence. And you aren't allowed to call me Tia!"

"Who is this?" Sarah asked.

"This is Terrence Albright" Teana growled. "We went to kindergarten and elementary school together. And his number one source of amusement was to piss me off! Every day he'd keep pushing my buttons and then laugh at my reactions – teasing, pranks, the works. I was _hoping_ that, once I moved on to middle school, I wouldn't have to deal with this jerk anymore."

"Isn't that what little kids do when they have a crush on someone?" Subaru asked.

"Nah" Terrence replied. "I don't like her _that_ way, and she doesn't like me that way, either. I just think it's fun to mess with her! …Though she _has_ become pretty hot since I last saw her."

"See?" Teana said in a weary, deadpan tone. "Every day, from my first day at kindergarten to the day I graduated from elementary, _this_ asshole went out of his way to set me off and then laugh at it!"

"Well, you made it so easy" Terrence replied. "You were always such a firebrand, and you had so many triggers, it was _way_ too easy to set you off! I remember how you'd start fuming, your cheeks would puff out and you'd turn as red as your hair, and you'd try to say something back but you'd be too angry to and you'd end up stuttering." He laughed.

Subaru became aware of the sound of Teana's teeth grinding. At this point, the other people in the room were paying attention to the spectacle.

"Is there a reason you're here, Terrence?" Teana growled, trying very hard to keep control of herself.

"I'm part of the research team!" he said with a big, obnoxious grin. "I'll be helping you guys track down whatever it is you're looking for. We get to spend time together again!"

"Yay" Teana deadpanned.

"Hmm… I wonder if Belka has any raccoons…"

"Ohhh, no!" Teana stood up. "You are _not_ repeating the water balloon trap! You hear me?-!"

Terrence scoffed. "You were always such a stick in the mud, Tia. I worked hard to get reactions from you! …Say… Do you still have that stuffed 'Belkan Knight' lamb?"

Teana went red with anger and embarrassment. "_You leave Sir Wilhelmston out of this!-!_" she screeched.

As Terrence laughed and Teana fumed (Sarah swore that if this were a cartoon, there'd be steam whistling out of the redhead's ears), Subaru tugged on Teana's sleeve.

"Sir Wilhelmston?" she asked, fighting back a grin.

Teana went even redder, if that were even possible. "He was a gift from my brother when I was five" she muttered.

"Do you still have him?" Sarah asked.

"…Yes" Teana whispered, face practically glowing red.

"It's okay" Sarah said with a kind and understanding smile, gently pulling Teana into her lap. "I still have my old friend Oswald."

"Oswald?"

"A stuffed octopus with a mustache, monocle, and top hat. I got him when I was six, and I still sleep with him sometimes."

Terrence's Storage Device chimed. "Whoops, that's my cue!" he said as he turned and headed for the exit. "I gotta go get to work. Later, sweet-cheeks!"

As he reached the door, a thrown couch pillow smacked him in the back of the head hard enough to almost knock him over. He turned back to the girls, grinned, and then left.

"He's more obnoxious than ever" Teana growled. "Asshole…"

"Let's just hope, for his sake," Laicixa said, "that he doesn't let his 'fun' get in the way of our mission."

"Yeah…" Vita said. Then she looked at Teana with a smirk. "So… Sir Wilhelmston, huh?"

"Oh, I don't wanna hear a _peep_ outta _you_, bunny-girl!"

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Realm DB-107**

**Brief Residence / Capsule Corp. Headquarters**

Vegeta the Second, last surviving pureblood member of the Saiyan royal family, sat on one of the couches in his living room, his nine-year-old son napping on the easy chair nearby. An open laptop sat on the coffee table, and Vegeta was knelt over it. Out of boredom, he was going over genetic data from some of the coalition's members (contrary to expectations, the Saiyan Prince's intelligence was not limited to combat; he may not be as smart as his wife Bulma, but the fact he & she had produced an offspring together had driven him to study up on genetics). He sighed as he scrolled down the current code, looking for anything out of the ordinary (nothing of note so far)…

…And then he stopped, and scrolled back up. The information currently onscreen was hauntingly familiar. After a few seconds, his eyes widened.

"Impossible…" he whispered.

He opened up another data-packet, looking for more confirmation. As he poured over data for the next few minutes, he felt shock as it finally hit him. Her father's name had only been mentioned once during the recordings of everything the other coalition had been through. It had flown past him at the moment, but now he found himself struggling to remember. He also now remembered the 'scene' from right before the group busted free of the Last Precursor's prison…

"…I need to confirm this. If my hunch is true…"

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Belka**

**Day 2 – 20:04 Hours**

The seven young teens of Group _Puellae_ relaxed after a day of Heartless-hunting. Kyōsuke sat in the middle of the couch they were on; normally, Sayaka would be laying her head in his lap, but a certain other member of the group had been becoming closer with him and her, and they'd decided to try 'accommodating' her. Thus, Kyōsuke was holding a blushing Kyōko in his lap, her back pressed against his chest and his right hand on her exposed midriff. Sayaka was on their left, held close by Kyōsuke's left arm, her head resting on Kyōko's shoulder. Kyōko had been a bit confused when she'd seen Kyōsuke and Sayaka sharing a look and then nodding to each other, and then she'd made a surprised squeal when he'd pulled her into her lap and Sayaka had latched on from the side. She'd gone red and started stammering, but they simply held onto her as she gradually calmed down (mostly). His soft, warm hands slowly and gently rubbing her exposed tummy, though making her blush more, had also helped calm her down.

Next to them, a mirrored scene was playing out – Mami with a shy Homura in her lap, her right arm around Madoka, who was in turn hugging Homura. And between the two trios sat Miyako. She looked back and forth between the two, conflicted on whether or not she should try joining in either of them, and of which one to try. Mami and Kyōsuke both noticed her distress. A few seconds later, they scooted themselves and their hangers-on closer to each other and thus to her, pressing her between them, and then Mami's left arm and Kyōsuke's right both went around the shy girl. She blushed, and then laid her head on Kyōsuke's right shoulder.

Across the lounge, a fairly similar grouping was taking place among the six kids of Theta Team – Timmy had Erika and Mariko latched onto his left and right sides, respectively, with an arm around each of them, while the same was playing out nearby with Erio, Caro, and Laicixa. The kids were tired after running their own missions today, though they'd also been in discussion about something.

"You think it'll work out?" Caro asked. "Adding another member to Theta Team, I mean. Cocolova-san is kinda… fiery."

"Y-Yeah, I do" Erika replied. "I think Anya will do just fine with us. B-Besides, I know that I, at least, can h-help her keep cool; apparently, I'm one of the f-few besides Negi to whom she'll listen when t-told to calm down."

Mariko suddenly let out a quiet whimper, shifting in her seat ever so slightly.

"Do you need a change, honey?" Timmy asked.

"…Mm-hm" Mariko nodded.

"I'll help" Erika said.

"Alright…" Timmy got to his feet, Mariko letting out a tiny squeak of surprise as she was picked up and carried bridal-style. "We'll be back in a minute or so, guys" he said as he and his girlfriends headed for somewhere private.

"Take your time" Erio said.

In the hallway outside, there was a slap and a sudden "Eeek!", followed by a giggling Terrence running for the hills. Teana stood in place, mouth open with shock and a hand drifting to hold her just-struck right buttcheek. She stammered for a few seconds, shocked still by the sheer _audacity_ of that jerk doing such a thing; no-one had _ever_ done that, not even Subaru. Then she let out an angry cry and fired a barrage of _Sagitta Magica_ down the hall, but her obnoxious target was already long gone.

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 3 – 08:45 Hours**

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen" Teana said to the group gathered in the courtyard. It was a fairly big team – Teana, Marie & Sarah, Subaru, Erika & Timmy, Golden Tiara, Shining Armor, Zaeed and Jack, and, from Delta Squad, Sam and Carmine. "It seems that a few of the tech-heads have found something, and they're sending us to inspect it. We expect significant opposition, so that is why we have so many combat specialists in this group. Unfortunately, the path to this destination is not vehicle-friendly – thick forest and a narrow canyon. So once we get dropped off outside the forest, we'll have to make the rest of the journey on foot. This is probably gonna take up a good chunk of the day. We leave in 35 minutes."

"At least this planet's relatively cool…" Jack murmured.

**-**_**Break**_**-**

**19:50 Hours**

Today had sucked. That was the consensus shared by pretty much the entire group. First, the dropship had needed to drop them off earlier than planned, meaning extra walking. The forest had been thick, with loads of easily-tripped-over roots coating the ground, and many times they'd been ambushed by the Dark Voice's shadowy minions. It had taken them hours to get all the way through. Then had come the canyon – squeezing through gaps, climbing up and over jagged rocks and slippery boulders, frequently fending off more attacks from above, watching out for the occasional randomly-falling rocks, and – as the day wore on – a chillingly cold wind, which was made worse by the fact that most of the group was a bit sweaty from exertion, meaning that the cold air left some of them shivering.

Now, as the sun was setting, they finally approached an object at the end of the canyon path, a device of obvious Belkan design. Everyone ached to varying degrees, cold and tired, just wanting to get this done and go back to base. Erika, in particular, looked about ready to collapse, her Keyblade having drawn the ire of a significant chunk of the dark creatures' attentions; a small pack of Heartless had even attacked while she was in the middle of being changed by Sarah, necessitating her to fight them off with her lower body bare before her big sister could finish. She was wheezing a little bit, her little body trembling in the cold and her walk awkward from the ache that permeated her legs (and the fact she needed another change).

"Fuckin' finally!" Jack said as the group made their way up to the device.

"Alright" Teana said with a weary sigh. "Let's get this over with and see what we came for."

She walked up, letting Cross Mirage interface with and activate the machine. It made a whirring sound as it came to life, parts unfolding to form a holographic projector. The projector came online, and from it emerged a holographic recording of…

"Oh, no way…" Teana said exasperatedly.

"_Heyyy, Tia~!_" the recording of Terrence Albright said. "_You found the prize! Congratulations! I guess I should explain myself. You see, I've got a new boss, one who's not part of the Bureau, and he's paid me big credits to keep you occupied for a while. Now, he didn't specify how I was to do that, so I thought, 'Hey, how's about one last prank?' – lead you on a wild goose chase, make you work your sexy little ass off for nothing, the biggest thing I've ever done to you! Oh man, I can only imagine what your face looks like right now! What was it your cute little friend Marie called me – a 'troll'? Well, whatever! I gotta get going; the boss-man's got another job for me. Toodles, Tia!_"

The holographic Terrence blew a kiss, and then the recording ended. The canyon was dead silent save for the wind, as nobody could quite think of what to say or do yet.

"…What…" Teana whispered.

"Y-You… You've…"

And then, sweet little Erika's patience finally broke. No, scratch that – it exploded, and so did she.

"You have _got to be FUCKING KIDDING ME!-!-!_"

The little girl's enraged shout drew the attention of everyone, with Marie & Sarah's jaws dropping at hearing their sweetheart baby-girl sister swear for the first time since… well, ever. But she wasn't even close to done.

"What the _hell_ does this asshole get off on, pulling this kinda shit on us?-! Making us spend the whole god-damned day traipsing about through the forest of death, landing flat on my face after tripping over a root four different times, working our asses off and being ambushed every five minutes, crawling through this god-forsaken canyon in the ass-end of nowhere! And for _what_?-! My favorite shirt has half a dozen holes torn in it, I'm freezing my ass off, my chest feels tight, my diaper is wet, my legs feel like jelly, I can barely see straight, _and this was all just A FUCKING PRANK?-!-?-!_"

She finished by letting out what could only be described as a roar of pure, primeval fury and rage, echoing through the whole canyon. As she stood panting and gasping for breath, eyes glowing a little from anger, everyone stood watching, shocked into silence. Then Jack started applauding, and Zaeed, Sam, & Carmine joined in.

"I think they'll hear that one all the way over on Sera" Sam quipped.

"…Okay, new plan" Teana said with deceptive calm. "We get out of this canyon, radio the brass and tell them what happened, get Erika into a fresh diaper, return to base to get patched up, get some food, and get the ache out of our bodies, and then hunt down Terrence and take turns _breaking every bone in his body_. That sound good, everyone?"

There were unanimous responses of agreement among the rest of the group.

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 4 – 09:20 Hours**

Unfortunately, Terrence Albright had flown the coop; nobody knew where he was or how to find him, and some suspected he wasn't even on Belka anymore. Teana and Erika were still fuming when they woke up the next morning, though a sparring session with Signum for the former and a massage from Timmy and Erio for the latter had helped diffuse that. Celestia, after learning what had happened, had not-entirely-jokingly told Luna she wondered if this 'Terrence' were an alternate incarnation of Discord.

Everyone found themselves in the lounge the next morning. It was another dull morning, though this gave everyone the chance to rest a little more. Just then, however, Commander Shepard walked in.

"Everyone," he announced, "we've finally found something! A search team just discovered an old Belkan military installation which they believe might be just the thing we're looking for!"

That got everyone's attention. "What's in it?" Nanoha asked.

"An old astronavigation databank. They believe it can point us where we need to go. Who wants to go see?"

**-**_**Break**_**-**

**Belkan Groundside Naval Base (Ruins)**

**10:05 Hours**

A mid-sized group, including Gamma Team, Nanoha & Fate, Precia, Shepard, and Galen Marek, entered the facility. Moving in a little, they found a pack of techs moving about in the large, circular chamber, analyzing things. Nanoha walked up to the head researcher on-site.

"What have you got?" she asked.

"It's a star map, ma'am" the man replied. "Complete with coordinates. What's more, the machine was programmed to constantly keep up-to-date, synching with old probe satellites scattered through the entirety of the old empire's space and a ways beyond its borders. The satellites had self-repair protocols, so they're all still doing their jobs exceeding a few that have been destroyed by random chance. We've got a fairly complete map of the galaxy, including some sectors well outside of the TSAB's borders. Here, I'll show you."

He walked over to an old console, keying in a command. The room darkened, and from the center of the room sprung up a holographic 'map' of a good chunk of the galaxy. Shepard slowly walked among the 'stars', noticing how many of them had names and other bits of data hovering next to them. Midchilda's home, the Beacon System, was just outside the 'near' edge of the Empire's border.

"There are dozens of habitable systems displayed here" he said. "How do we know which one's the right one?"

"Let me try" Galen said. "Let's see if the Force is willing to give us a nudge in the right direction."

He walked into the holographic field of stars, eyes closed as he let the Force flow through and guide him. After about a minute, he came to an unassuming K-type orange dwarf star (though close to the G-type boundary in size and temperature, with a yellowish tint), with three planets – two terrestrial and one Jovian – orbiting it. It was outside the old Belkan Empire's borders, near the very edge of the map, the opposite side of Belka from Midchilda. The tiny holographic words above it said 'SYSTEM JBX-49, CONTENTS UNCERTAIN'.

"This is the one" he said, pointing to the system. "The second planet of this system, along the outer edge of the star's habitable zone. This is where we need to go."

Precia walked up, analyzing the space-time around the star. "It looks like there's some sort of gravitational anomaly surrounding this cluster of stars" she said. "Hyperspace or voidspace travel through the anomaly would be difficult, if not impossible, without the right calculations and drive settings. However, slipstream space travel would be wholly unaffected; black holes are the only realspace objects with strong enough gravity in a small enough space to affect objects in slipspace, so a ship in slipstream space should be able to pass right through this anomaly like it's not even there."

"Good thing all DDF ships are fitted or retrofitted with slipspace drives, then" Teana said. "So when do we leave?"

"As soon as possible" Nanoha replied. "Let's inform the higher-ups so we can get this show on the road."

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

It took a handful of hours for everyone to get packed up and ready. Most of the Bureau scientists would remain on Belka and continue to puzzle out its secrets. By 15:00 Hours, the fleet was ready for departure. Coordinates were punched in, and the ships jumped to slipspace.

**Unidentified System, Low Orbit Over Second Planet**

**16:30 Hours**

The planet was a 'snowball' type, from all observations. Snow and ice covered nearly the entirety of the world; only a narrow band along the equator saw above-freezing temperatures, and even then nothing above 62 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the atmosphere was perfectly breathable (though cloud cover hid the majority of the world's surface, depositing a steady stream of snow). The planet's companion world, a lifeless silver rock somewhat smaller in size, was easily visible out in space; it was large enough that the two worlds' center of mass was outside of either one, classifying the two as a binary planet system.

But what was most interesting about this cold world was what scanners detected: Forerunner technology. Sat-scans revealed dozens of Forerunner structures scattered around the northern continent, nearly all of them partially (but none completely) buried beneath the snow and ice that covered the planet. Several of them had long-abandoned younger structures of different design built near and around them – this planet had apparently played host to another civilization (and a fairly advanced one judging by what could be seen; a few sites could even already be discerned as former cities) after the Forerunners had gone.

"Well…" Teana said as she stared at the footage displayed on one of the monitors on the _Starshot_'s bridge. "Let's get down there."

**-**_**Break**_**-**

**18:45 Hours**

Once teams got down to the planet's surface and started exploring and examining, a lot could already be discerned from observations. The planet's ice age had been going on for about 380,000 years; it was frozen long before the Forerunners discovered it. The civilization that had last lived here had been present from around 600 BC to 800 AD, before vanishing with an unnatural suddenness, leaving no signs of major devastation or battle; it was as if they abruptly packed up and left the planet. Closer examination did reveal a few signs of ancient battle; maybe the occupants had decided to take their fight elsewhere before it really got going, so as to spare their world any serious harm?

Deep seismic scans had revealed more ruins preserved deep, deep beneath the (at some points kilometers-thick) snow and ice. The leading hypothesis was that these were from the planet's original, native-evolved primitive sapient inhabitants, who were unable to cope when the planet froze over and went extinct nearly 400 millennia ago. But most intriguing of all was what was discovered buried beneath a few of the Forerunner structures, deep under the ice and ancient metal, the lowest levels of the Forerunner structures connected to them:

Precursor constructions. Actual, honest-to-goodness intact ruins left behind by the multi-galactic, reality-bending entities who 'created' the Forerunners (and then tried to destroy them for not fitting their desired parameters, like disposing of an unsuccessful experiment, only to be near-totally wiped out in self-defense). Apparently, a few Precursors had survived and escaped the Forerunners' retaliation, finding and settling on this world at some point after its ice age's inception, only to either die out or go elsewhere. The Forerunners had then found this planet at some point after discovering limited interdimensional travel around 120,000 years ago (and, having learned via examining the Ark's records just how imperialistic the Forerunners were, the DDF was _glad_ that said travel was quite limited), and set up shop to examine what they could find. It was almost certain that the Forerunners had long since picked the Precursor sites clean of anything useful or interesting.

"Now I know how a Forerunner ship with a Precursor bring-back-from-the-dead machine ended up in a pocket realm on Midchilda…" Teana said. "Old Belka's refugees weren't the first sapient beings to set foot on the Bureau's capital world."

Right now, Teana, Nanoha & Fate, Precia, Aqua, and Luna were exploring a structure built in the shadow of a Forerunner spire. Whoever had last lived here, they built things to last. This building looked to have been a city hall of sorts, and was remarkably intact given its age of at least 1,400 years. Nanoha soon found and pointed out what looked like a computer terminal, and miraculously it still had power. They 'woke it up', calling up a holoscreen that displayed several lines of text in an unknown language.

"I think I've seen this language somewhere before…" Precia murmured. "Hrist, run translation program."

"Yes, ma'am" her Device replied. "Language recognized from categorized records in Infinity Library. Working…"

The holographic text began to shimmer and shift, and after several seconds it became legible. There were a few lines about protocol, the somewhat grandiose title of this old city's last 'mayor' (or a close translation equivalent), but what drew everyone's attention, what almost made Precia's heart stop, was the bottom signature, which at long last revealed the name of this snowy planet.

Al-Hazred.

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-  
**

Next Time: Enemies old and new


	3. Old Foes

SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE & CHARACTER PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Nereid Sector, Hazred System, Al-Hazred**

**Day 5 – 14:30 Hours**

People were already hard at work setting up shop. A few bases were already being constructed, including a primary base near one of the larger Forerunner installations several klicks inland from the west coast (of a frozen ocean) of the primary northern continent. Specialists and probe droids were exploring the five installations nearest the main base, with a few droids also exploring the Precursor site buried beneath the nearby one (it had been completely buried and un-accessed for over 100 millennia; they couldn't be wholly sure yet that the air down there was still breathable).

Precia was still dwelling on the irony of finally finding Al-Hazred _after_ Alicia had already been revived by other means.

Earlier today, though, scanners had detected an unusual 'dead zone' in the long-range scans of an area far to the east on the northern continent, one of plainly artificial nature; something was hiding or being hidden. Cloud cover made visual confirmation by air impossible without descending low enough to put at risk in case whatever was there turned out hostile. Thus, a small handful of volunteers would fly in low before setting down and making their way on foot close enough to identify the source.

Now, Teana and Subaru, their Mark-7 Mjolnir armor's new reactive paneling providing them passive camouflage in the rocks and snow, crawled on their stomachs up a hill of snow. As they reached the top and peeked over into the wide valley below, they saw something quite unexpected. A large but fairly ramshackle-looking camp was built around a Forerunner structure, with men and women in heavy clothing moving about. A starship – a TSAB frigate of the old discontinued _Archer_-class, 680 meters long – hovered a hundred meters off the ground, painted in new colors. Looking at the emblem on the side of the ship and on some of the buildings, Teana recognized the group she remembered her brother routinely encountering during his days as an Enforcer: the Fox's Teeth.

"Pirates…" she growled.

"How'd they even get here?" Subaru wondered. "I thought Dr. Testarossa said that without the right tech add-ons and drive settings, voidspace ships couldn't reach this sector."

"Well apparently, these guys have the right drive settings" Teana replied. "Mirage, set up an encrypted radio channel back to base."

"Yes, ma'am" the AI said. "Working…"

"_Gamma-1, this is Gamma Actual. What's your status? Have you and Sigma-3 found the source of the sensor-jamming field?_"

"Affirmative, Colonel. It's the Fox's Teeth, a pirate syndicate that's been causing the Bureau trouble for 30-odd years now. I don't know how they're here, but it's definitely them. They've set up camp near a Forerunner structure, and they have an old _Archer_-class frigate. Be advised: they are infamous for the brutality of their raids on ships and colonies, and have even engaged Bureau battle-fleets in direct action in the past. If we plan on clearing them out, expect a fight."

"_Solid copy, Lieutenant. Grab some visual evidence and then hightail it back here. We'll work something out._"

"Affirmative, Actual" she said as she set her helmet to record what her visor was seeing. "Recording now. Gamma-1 out."

"At least the Fox's Teeth aren't as numerous or well-equipped as those Black Suns guys back in the UNSC's realm" Subaru said. "Let's just hope they don't stumble upon anything in there that could cause us more trouble."

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**19:05 Hours**

Four UNSC Warthogs painted in snow camo colors drove across the frozen ground. They stopped atop a large snowy hill overlooking the Fox's Teeth base, and then blared their horns for several seconds. The result was like kicking an ant's nest, as down below the pirates scrambled about, quickly spotting the four vehicles and training weapons on them.

Down in the Fox's Teeth camp, the captain of the vessel, and thus leader of the present ancient-ruins salvage operation, gritted his teeth and groaned at the emergence of another complication. When his ship had, while testing new drive settings, happened to have made it through the 'Nereid Wall', to find this world brimming with ancient tech that could make a fortune on the black market, he thought they were set. But things are never as they seem. First there was the damnable cold. Then there was the fact that, apparently, when the previous two civilizations left this world they took most of their stuff with them, leaving little of value that could be removed. And then there was the fact that three different teams had gone deeper into the facility's lower levels and not come out or reported back since. And now there were interlopers.

"_Attention, members of Fox's Teeth_" one of the Warthog's drivers said over a loudspeaker. "_We represent a large coalition of several space-faring sovereign powers, of which the Time-Space Administration Bureau is a member, which has claimed this planet for its xenoarcheological value. However, we are willing to allow you safe passage out so long as you leave all ruin installations and do not interfere with our investigations. We give you this chance to leave peacefully and not be pursued. We urge that you take it to avoid bloodshed._"

The pirate leader sneered and signaled his rocket-launcher men, who fired a barrage at the vehicles atop the hill. The Warthogs drove backward down the other side of the hill, letting the warheads blast craters into the snow.

"_Okay. Have it your way._"

A red targeting laser shot up from the other side of the hill, touching the hovering pirate frigate. Seconds later, a 600-ton ferric-tungsten shell came screaming in from low orbit at hypersonic velocity, punching through the clouds and tearing a hole clean through the unshielded ship. The old frigate began to plummet out of the air, flames spewing from the main impact points. Then dropships, attack aircraft, and Bureau air mages came soaring in from over the snow hill, while various ground vehicles came up and over or around it, several of the faster ones catching some air as they cleared the top of the hill. The pirates panicked, some opening fire while others – including the leader – fled inside the structure.

"Well…" Garrus said as he fired a Warthog's chaingun to take out an enemy airspeeder, "we _did_ warn 'em…"

**-**_**Break**_**-**

**19:50 Hours**

The rather one-sided 'battle' had been fairly quick, with most of the Fox's Teeth either dead or arrested. A good number of them had fled deep into the Forerunner structure, however, necessitating a team to go in and clean them out. Thus, the seven girls of Gamma Team headed down, past empty fortifications and abandoned machinery. As they made their way through, they noticed a few mounted turrets that seemed to be pointing further in, as if expecting attack from within the structure.

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Marie said.

They came to a large, open room, and found something concerning: loads of spent mana cartridges and bullet casings, a few dropped devices and projectile guns, and lots of blood splatters, but not a single body. Against the near wall was a Forerunner terminal, displaying a series of Forerunner written symbols in bright red. Teana walked over to it.

"Mirage, what does this say?" she asked her AI.

"It says 'Containment Breached; All Non-Combat Personnel Evacuate Immediately', master" Cross Mirage replied.

"Containment…?"

Just then, they heard uneven footsteps approaching from a nearby hallway. Pointing their weapons at the doorway, they waited. As the figure wearing a Fox's Teeth uniform stepped through, however, the seven girls felt revulsion, shock, and horrified recognition. The man's flesh was a sickly greenish-brown, his body mutated into a monstrosity. Tentacles jutted out from the wrist of the right hand, and the head, with dead black eyes, was pushed to the side for a pair of feeler-tipped tentacles to emerge from the neck. The creature moaned and raised its pistol in its left hand, pointing it at the girls and firing. They all dodged to the sides, and Teana blasted the monster with three shots from Mirage Shotgun. The abomination went down, and in response a horrible howl echoed from a little deeper in, scores of mutilated vocal chords joining in unholy harmony.

Teana, an expression of panic on her face, sent out a transmission on the general channel. "This is Gamma-1 to all forces! We have a Code F, I repeat, Code F at Installation 4-7! The damned pirates woke up the Flood!-!"

Two packs of Combat Forms with Infection Form support emerged from the far-side and right-hand doors. Sarah's Lancer and Mai's SAW were quickly put to work in taking out the Infection Forms, while Kaede's M90A shotgun joined Mirage Shotgun in blasting those Combat Forms that came within range, Marie started hitting Combat Forms with charged Ice-Burst shots and then shattering them with Concussion Missiles, and Shion & Ahsoka used their energy blades to carve up those that got within melee range.

"We need to get the hell out of here!" Marie said once the last Combat Form fell.

"Agreed" Teana replied. "Double-time it, girls! Back to the surface!"

Gamma Team hurried their way back through the structure, heading up and fighting through three more Flood attacks on the way. On their way up, they encountered two instances of other squads engaging Flood in battle, and pitched in to help, those squads joining them in the retreat upwards. Finally, they all reached the surface-level exit, passing loads of heavy machinegun turrets and shotgun-wielding soldiers who were all pointing their weapons inward. A sizable force of Flood came out seconds later, only to be met by a wall of gunfire from the turrets and shotguns that was enough to stop the parasite's advance in its tracks. Flood biomatter, chewed up by bullets, soon littered the floor. Eventually the monsters wised up and retreated back down into the structure.

"Damn it, I never thought I'd see them again" Teana said, panting lightly.

"Why did those damn pirates have to go poking at every shiny object they could find?" Marie said, exasperated. "As if we didn't have enough on our plate…"

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 6 – 13:20 Hours**

The knowledge of a minor Flood outbreak had been a nasty surprise. Fortunately, Command and the forces already at the facility had acted quickly, and so far the Flood were contained within the initial structure, every single possible exit now heavily guarded with loads of firepower pointed inward, as well as security stations and scanners set up in a three-kilometer zone around the site. Everyone on the planet who hadn't had experience against the Flood was being given a crash-course in fighting them, just in case. Shotguns, automatic weapons (for Infection Forms), and energy swords were must-haves for anyone stationed at or near the infected facility.

What's more, additional help had arrived through the _Starshot_'s slipspace translocation gateway, in the form of the Master Chief (& Cortana), Samus Aran, and Chen S'Yar & his Talon Squad. Now, the on-site Officers were preparing to send elite hunter-killer teams – specialists armed and armored for the express purpose of Flood-killing – to move into the structure and perform a gradual, thorough clearing out, with the goal of leaving the facility completely Flood-free. The Master Chief and Samus had volunteered to take part in this and were making ready, while Talon Squad was already at the makeshift base outside the structure, waiting for the go-ahead. Lastly, the UNSC _Austerlitz_-class supercarrier _Vladivostok_ was on the way, due to finish up their previous mission and arrive at Al-Hazred in 2-3 days, just in case. And every other Forerunner installation on the planet yet reached was now being treated with kid gloves, explorer teams having armed escorts and probe droids being fitted with weapons.

You can never be too careful when it comes to the Flood.

Back at the main base, Precia sat in the lounge, staring out the window at the gently falling snow outside, looking in the direction of the distant infected facility, a slightly haunted expression on her face. Back when she'd been rescued from the Realm of Darkness and watched the archived 'footage', she had immediately recognized a certain threat when the Chief & Teana first encountered it. She thought that the destruction of their leader would mean the end of them, but here they were again…

"Mother?"

She turned as Fate and Alicia walked up.

"What's wrong?" Fate asked.

"You've been like this since the news broke yesterday" Alicia added.

"…I never told you girls how your father died, did I?" Precia asked.

Both girls shook their heads, and she sighed.

"It was back when I was pregnant with Alicia. His name was Mikael Alderson, and he was a Captain in the TSAB Navy. He and his ship had been out on an exploratory mission, to where I don't know. The ship was going to return to Bureau space at the planet Tethys, and I was waiting there for him, on an orbital station-city."

"I've never heard of Tethys" Fate said.

"There's a reason for that. When his ship came out of voidspace, it was heavily damaged; there were holes in it, caused by explosions from inside, and its void-drive came apart after it emerged into realspace. The ship had, at some point, accidentally picked up a Flood form during its mission, and by the time it came to Tethys' system it was heavily infested."

Fate and Alicia gasped. The Flood had surfaced in this realm decades before now?

"He contacted the station control and the other ships in the area, and I happened to be listening in. He said that the 'unknown virulent parasitic lifeform' had control over around 90% of the ship and all but seven of its crew – him and six others holed up in the bridge. He knew that if the parasite made landfall on Tethys, the entire planet could be lost. So he gave his speech, told me goodbye, and… self-destructed his ship. What I now know as the Flood took my husband – your father – from me."

She growled.

"But it _didn't work_. A few Infection Forms must've stowed away on a part of the ship that got drawn in by Tethys' gravity, and survived the drop. Within a week, the entire planet was infected to varying degrees. The Bureau sent in a Black Ops fleet, and they had no choice but to sterilize the entire planet, destroy Tethys' biosphere to stop the Flood. After that, they came up with a cover story of Tethys being devastated by terrorists armed with chemical and mass-based weapons, and labeled the entire system as a restricted area. …The Flood had been only a day and a half away from Tethys' main starport when the planet was purged; if they had gotten to any FTL-capable ships…"

Her two daughters hugged her.

"It won't happen again" Fate said. "This is a comparatively minor outbreak, and we're doing everything we can to contain and eliminate it. It helps that we know exactly what we're up against and what the best countermeasures are."

"And," Alicia added, "if the Flood on Tethys were almost to the starport _after_ our dad sacrificed himself to slow them down, what would've happened if he _hadn't_ done that? …He couldn't save Tethys, but he just might've saved the rest of the Bureau."

"…I didn't think of that" Precia admitted. "Maybe Mikael's sacrifice wasn't meaningless after all…"

Just then, a nearby terminal beeped, as did the three present Devices.

"Slipspace rupture detected over eastern coast of this continent" Lochaber reported. "Cannot identify transponders. Cloud cover prevents satellite imaging."

"Maybe another of our ships is here and is having trouble with their IFF tag…" Fate said. "The _Vladivostok_'s not due until tomorrow, though."

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 6 – 18:45 Hours**

**Approaching Unmapped Forerunner Structure, ~2800 kilometers from Main DDF Base**

A recon force of three UNSC Warthogs, two Sangheili Alliance Ghosts, and a COG Centaur rolled across the snowy ground, heading for one of the Forerunner sites that had yet to be explored due to distance from the landing zones. Thermal scans suggested that personnel from the unidentified ship had come in this direction, and were either at the structure or soon would be. One Warthog carried Wash, York, and Carolina, the second had Grif, Tucker, and Simmons, and the third carried Teana, Mana K., and Ginga, while the Centaur was manned by Carmine, Sam, Anya, and Jace. Erohn Kilkar and Usze Taham piloted the Ghosts.

The vehicles pulled up and parked alongside the structure's east entrance. Grif, York, and Jace stayed behind with the vehicles while the rest of the team headed inside. Cautiously and quietly, they made their way through a few hallways. Soon, they heard noises – scuffling footsteps and muttered chattering. The next large room contained a fairly large pack of Unggoy with a few Kig-Yar.

"I do not remember our forces being deployed to this location…" Erohn murmured.

At this point, one of the Grunts spotted the group. But rather than waving to them, it drew its weapon and shouted:

"Humans and heretics! Kill!"

The other Grunts noticed, and the group opened fire, forcing the DDF team to take cover. A few seconds later, something quite unexpected came charging out from another doorway across the room: a trio of Jiralhanae, one armed with a Brute Shot. The lead one roared out, and he & his fellows added their fire.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Wash said.

"_Guys!_" York radioed. "_Delta just finally got a visual image of the unknown ship through a break in the clouds! It's a Sangheili battlecruiser, but it's painted with emblems and colors used by the Loyalist Remnant! It's the Covenant!_"

"Yeah, we've noticed that, York!" Carolina replied.

"_We got hostile Phantoms 100 klicks out and closing fast! Get out of there and back to the vehicles!_"

"Return fire!" Teana and Kilkar shouted.

A handful of frag grenades and a few shells from Ginga's concussion rifle quickly cleared out most of the Covenant Grunts and the two Jackals, and then focused fire brought the Brutes down. The team hurried their way back up to the surface, piling into the vehicles which promptly floored it away from the facility, just as hostile Phantoms became visible approaching it from the other direction.

"Wonderful…" Teana sighed. "First the Dark Voice's minions, then pirates, then the Flood, and now the Covenant. What next?"

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 7 – 10:36 Hours**

Now everyone was on even higher alert. The Covenant battlecruiser had vanished from detection again, hiding in the low, thick, dark clouds that covered most of the sky. Brute-led forces had been sighted by aerial drones at several locations on the eastern sector of the north continent, settling in and trying to plunder the Forerunner installations there. Fortunately, the Brutes had apparently overheard a DDF communiqué referring to the Flood problem, and thus they were being very careful and conservative in their exploring of the Forerunner sites they'd found; even the vicious, battle-hungry Jiralhanae didn't want to tangle with the Great Devourer if they could help it.

Speaking of which, the hunter-killer teams had begun their sweep of the infected facility yesterday at 13:00 hours; already they had 38% of the structure confirmed clean. It would've been going faster, but the Covenant's appearance forced the DDF to divide their attention and available personnel. Plus there was the need to keep a constant lookout for the Dark Voice & Xehanort's underlings.

At the moment, a 'super-heavy' force – Nanoha, Fate, Vita, and Signum – was out in the eastern sector, investigating rumors of a Covenant base being constructed a little too close to one of the DDF's convoy routes. Soon enough, a collection of alien-looking little structures became visible up ahead. They flew in, surrounding themselves in defensive mana fields. But no fire was sent their way, and when they arrived no Covenant soldiers came out to fight them. This was likely because they were all scattered about the area in varying states of dead. The crushed, mangled corpses of over a dozen Brutes, including a Chieftain still gripping his hammer, were strewn about, along with a few dozen Grunts and Jackals.

"It looks like whatever did this did it with just stolen enemy weapons and unarmed attacks" Signum said. "And they were strong enough to deal lethal physical blows to armored Brutes…"

Suddenly, a dark magic barrier-field sprang up around the area.

"Warning" Raising Heart announced. "Flight magic is disabled within this field."

A dark portal formed across the way from the quartet. Out from it stepped a tall human figure with full-body white armor with bits of orange and black, a reflective orange visor, a wavering aura of Darkness, and a new Brute Shot slung across his back. The Meta let out a low, feral snarl, as his pitch-black aura flickered.

(_Red vs. Blue Season 10 _OST – Mental Meta Metal, 0:00 to 2:35)

"Even fresh from revitalization, he fought the Master Chief to a standstill" Vita said. "And not long after that, he kept pace with a Biotic and a Keyblade wielder. Now, he's had lots more time to keep getting stronger, and he's disabled our flight. …This is gonna be bad."

The Meta growled and then charged at the group with frightening speed. Nanoha fired an Accel Shooter barrage, but he dodged some and simply tanked the others, letting them hit him without even slowing down as he drew his Brute Shot. Two rapid-fired grenades forced Nanoha to back off and Shield, while the massive bayonet of the launcher locked blades against Laeventain, Signum straining as she pushed against The Meta's enhanced strength, which was – to her surprise – as strong as hers. Fate came in from the side, forcing The Meta back, and then Vita attacked, Graf Eisen being used to try and bash The Meta's head in.

After the fallen super-soldier dodged a few blows, he took a backhand swing to the chest that sent him rolling back. He landed on his feet right next to the dead Brute Chieftain. Glancing at what the body was holding, he took the opportunity offered to him, grabbing the gravity hammer and then charging at Vita, leaping forward to bring the heavy weapon down on her. She quickly cast _Panzer Schild_, and the crimson magic shield was heavily fractured by the blow it then took, almost coming apart. He struck twice more, the second hit shattering Vita's defense, and would've then hit her directly had Nanoha not knocked him away with a magic-augmented punch. He again came out of the tumble on his feet, stowing the hammer and drawing his Brute Shot again. Three high-speed grenades were fired, only to be shot out of the air by precision-fired pink Crossfire bolts.

The Meta appeared through the smoke created by the blasts, lunging blade-first at Nanoha. A clang of metal rang out as the Brute Shot's blade impacted Raising Heart hard enough to score the latter slightly, pushing Nanoha back a few feet. Fate came to her rescue, striking from the side and forcing The Meta to back off from Nanoha and focus on her. He pulled out the hammer again, using the bladed side of the head to block and parry the swings of Bardiche Zanbar she tried to hit him with. Once he got a feel for her sword style, he pressed his attack, matching her blow for blow. Finally, he deliberately took a blow to the shoulder, letting the golden blade cut into the thick armor there, and countered with an uppercut to Fate's solar plexus that stunned her, and then a kick that sent her hurtling back. And then the pink beam of destruction came roaring at him.

Just before the Divine Buster hit, The Meta braced himself, digging his boots into the earth and pushing his hands forward to catch it. On impact, he was shoved back several feet, his armored boots digging a trail into the ground. But rather than be consumed and enveloped by the beam, he actually managed to stop it, holding the raging wave of magical energy in place. He snarled, his feet sliding in place, but then he found his footing and, with herculean effort, took a step forward… and pushed the beam a little ways back. Another step, and he pushed it a little more. Then another, and another, slowly but surely. Nanoha's eyes went wide with shock, as The Meta began to gradually pick up speed, winning the shoving match against one of her signature moves. The beam finally cut out upon expending its power, and The Meta immediately charged at her full-speed. The fact she quickly reinforced her skull with magic was the only reason her face wasn't broken into a dozen-and-a-half pieces by the ensuing punch; even so, she felt a fracture form in the cartilage of her nose as she went tumbling back.

The Meta drew his Brute Shot, loading a fresh clip into it and stalking towards the downed and stunned Nanoha. However, there were sudden multiple flashes of golden light in the area, as Princess Celestia teleported herself and several other heavy hitters in – her two sisters, Gamma & Sigma Teams, Shamal and Zafira, Precia, Hayate, Galen and Master Kota, all of them with powers charged and weapons drawn. The Meta let out a low snarl as he realized he was heavily outgunned. He snapped his fingers, and a dark portal appeared directly in front of him. Before anyone could attack, he stepped through, retreating. The flight suppression field vanished, as Shamal and Kaede F. ran in to inspect the quartet's wounds, Shamal quickly getting to work healing Nanoha's nose.

"That was insane…" Vita said. "He actually had us – _us_, the 'living weapons' of the Bureau – on the defensive! Is he gonna, like, keep getting stronger every time he shows up?"

"At least he doesn't seem to possess any offensive magic" Fate replied, holding her stomach. "He has considerable strength and durability, but he seems limited to non-magical weapons… for now."

"Don't jinx it" Signum said. "For now, let's get back to base."

"So…" Vita said. "Who wants to be the one to tell the Blood-Gulchers that their boogeyman is even stronger now?"

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

Next Time: Battles, a resurfacing enemy, and a surprising new ally (not necessarily in that order)


	4. Sunset

NOTE: The names of characters mentioned in a character's backstory in this chapter are in no way related to any real people who may share the names (e.g., my skeletal outline has "Name Name-son", and random selection comes out with "Brian Jameson", etc.).

SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR MOST DISCLAIMERS

The character of "Küchen" is the creation of fanfic author "InsertAuthorHere" and is referenced with his permission

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE & CHARACTER PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Nereid Sector, Hazred System, Al-Hazred**

**Day 8 – 10:10 Hours**

At a Forerunner structure in the middle-eastern area of the North Continent, a lone figure emerged from a controlled rift in reality that quickly closed itself, depositing her on the roof. Heavy dark-blue and grey armor with large weapons attached covered her from neck to toes, leaving her head uncovered and her vibrant two-colored hair free, blowing in the cold wind like a flickering flame. She extended her magical senses, and then her teal eyes opened.

"He's here…" she whispered, cold fury in her voice.

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 8 – 11:47 Hours**

(MUSIC: _Halo 4 _OST – "Faithless")

DDF forces gathered in, on, and around the Forerunner structure, waiting for the 'storm' to hit. A sizeable force of Covenant was on its way, intent on capturing this facility on the way to the DDF's continent-center base. And a company's worth of DDF soldiers were waiting to stop them here. Many Phantoms, Spirits, and Shadows were inbound with lots of troops; the defenders did not have weapons heavy enough to destroy these large transports (well, they had rockets, but were saving those for more aggressive vehicles like Wraiths and Banshees), so all they could do was wait to pick off the ground forces as they were dispatched.

The first two Phantoms arrived, dropping off Brutes, Grunts, and Jackals. Perched behind a railing on a second-floor balcony of the structure alongside several other soldiers, Marcus Fenix sighted a turret-carrying Chieftain with his Longshot. "You want this place?" he murmured. "Try and take it."

He fired the first shot of the battle, draining the Chieftain's shields and knocking its helmet off, and then a DMR shot from one of the marines punched a hole through its skull. Snipers and marksmen managed to pick off a few more Brutes and Grunts before the enemy got close enough to the structure to allow the automatic weapon users at ground level, stationed behind metal barricades and sandbags, to join in. One Brute took a Torque Bow arrow to the face from Carmine, and the resulting head-splattering explosion also killed two nearby Jackals. Several Jackals were taken out by Tucker's DMR, while a frag grenade from Dom took out a pack of Grunts.

Three enemy Ghosts and a Chopper raced toward the base, their Brute drivers already firing their cannons. A barrage of rockets was fired at them; two of the Ghosts were scrapped, but the third and the Chopper managed to avoid the warheads… only for the Chopper to hit a land mine, irreparably damaging it and launching the driver through the air; he landed in a dazed heap and was finished off by a grenade. The last remaining Ghost tried to circle around and attack from the side, but an ODST killed the driver with a sniper shot.

Two Spirits and a Shadow came in next, the large ground transport firing its roof-mounted heavy plasma turret at the balcony; a rocket took care of that issue. One of the Spirits managed to deploy a Wraith along with a handful of troops, and it started lobbing plasma mortars at the base, one of them vaporizing four marines. Immediately, nearly every heavy-weapon user focused their attention on the hover-tank, and four rockets blew it to bits. Four enemy Banshees flew in, their guns taking out three more soldiers before another wave of rockets shot them out of the sky.

The battle continued like this for around 10 more minutes before the enemy's advance tapered off, the Covenant finally realizing that "Throw more troops at it" wasn't working and pulling back to conserve their forces for other battles; normally the Jiralhanae, bloodthirsty as they are, would never do this, but they were limited to just the personnel aboard the one ship that managed to stumble through a slipspace anomaly and reach this planet, and knew that they couldn't afford to waste too much manpower and gear. The 87% of the defending forces who'd survived the battle cheered as they saw their enemy finally falling back.

Sgt. Fenix sighed, resting his hands on his gun, as he watched the Covenant retreat. Suddenly, though, he received a transmission from Anya inside the opposite end of the structure.

"_Marcus! We've got Darklings popping up over here! They're inside!_"

"Copy that, Anya, I'm on my way! Dom, Carmine, Baird, let's move!"

The four went inside, soon meeting up with Cole, Sam, and Jace as they came in from outside, and seven of Delta Squad hurried to aid their eighth member. As they ran, Col. Holland contacted them.

"_Delta Squad, be advised: our scanners picked up a small dimensional transfer at the facility nearest yours, and we believe whatever it was is heading your way._"

"Yeah, we got the Dark Voice's monsters here now" Marcus replied.

"_No, this was something else. We can't identify it, but the transfer did not bear the energy signature associated with Demons, Heartless, or Unversed._"

"Roger that, Colonel, we'll keep our eyes open."

Before long, they reached the far-side section of the facility, and gunfire became audible up ahead. They soon came across Anya Stroud leading three other soldiers in exchanging fire with a pack of Type-Gs led by a few Type-Es. Faced with Sera's number-one veterans, the dark entities were quickly dispatched. A nearby door was then busted down as a Type-B in armor stepped through, brandishing an electrified mace and roaring out a challenge. However, there was a flash of golden light in the room behind it, and then a beam of golden magic impacted its back. The Demon collapsed, disintegrating as it fell, to reveal two rather important Equestrians.

"We came to investigate the anomalous energy signature heading this way" Celestia said as Twilight looked around. "I was not expecting hostiles to still be here."

"Neither were we, ma'am" Marcus replied.

"There's more coming!" shouted a marine standing near the door to outside, pointing out into the cloud-darkened gloom, where a sizable force of approaching Demons could be made out through the falling snow. The group moved outside and opened fire, Twilight scoring the first 'kill' with a concentrated beam of raw magic that struck down two Type-Gs. As the defenders cut the dark creatures down, they failed to notice as a figure wrapped in a ragged cloak moved around and past them and leapt up onto the roof of the structure, observing the conflict from a bird's-eye view. It took her very little time to recognize a certain one of the group; Celestia hadn't really changed much in the last 14 years. Her attention was then drawn as several more Demons spawned behind her. Reaching beneath her cloak, she drew her weapon.

Down below, as the rest of the attackers were cut down, the sound of Delta Squad's Lancers firing dwindled away… allowing the group to hear the sound of another Lancer firing up on the roof. They all turned and looked up, and saw the ragged-cloaked figure gunning down Demons that tried to charge her. A pair of Type-Es got in close, and she drew a 'Gnasher' shotgun and blasted them. She then stowed that and brought out a Boltok heavy pistol, taking out a few Type-Gs with it. Then, a Type-E blindsided her with a sword swing that caught her cloak, which she immediately detached and slipped out of, backflipping off of the roof and landing below, in full view of Delta and Celestia & Twilight.

She looked to be around 17 or 18 physically, though if she'd come from another realm as evidence suggested, she was likely subjected to the age-slowing effect of interdimensional travel. She was wearing COG armor, which looked a little old – likely scavenged. She had no helmet, allowing her fiery red-and-yellow hair, cut to shoulder length, to be seen, as her teal eyes opened, the look in them one of someone hardened by harsh experience and pain. After a few seconds, Celestia was rendered speechless from shock as, even in a transformed human form, the girl was unmistakably recognizable.

"Sunset…" Celestia breathed out.

"Who?" Twilight asked.

"My… My previous student before you, Twilight, one whom I feared I would never see again after she 'fled' our world 14 years ago because she thought I was deliberately keeping her from her potential due to the pace of her teachings not going as fast as she expected it to – much like what happened between Lanstar and Takamachi, actually. …By Father, it's really her. Sunset Shimmer…"

The Demons leapt down from the roof after her, and Sunset used her Gnasher to kill a Type-G as it fell towards her. As the rest of them attacked, everyone else stood back and watched as she began taking them out with little effort. She revved her Lancer's bayonet and used it to block a Type-E's sword, pushing back until she unbalanced it and then brought the chainsaw down, cutting the demon open and dispelling it in a burst of Darkness. She ducked under another Type-E's swing and blew its brains out with her Boltok pistol, and then used the bayonet of her Gnasher to slice a Type-G's throat.

"Hot damn, look at her go!" Jace said.

"There's another wave coming!" Dom pointed out into the snow, where a second force of Demons was approaching.

Delta Squad and Celestia turned their attention to the approaching second wave, while Twilight started blasting the Demons attacking Sunset. Before long, Sunset had cleared out her group and moved up to join Delta in repulsing the attack. She showed herself still capable of using magic by conjuring a fireball that took out two Type-Gs. Faced with all this firepower, the Demons were decimated and quickly retreated.

"Running away won't help!" Sunset shouted at the fleeing foes as she used precision Lancer fire to bring down a retreating Type-G. "I'll just shoot you in your asses!"

"Nice work, kid" Marcus said to her. "I don't know how you got a hold of some of our gear, but you clearly know how to use it."

"I've been realm-hopping for years" she replied. "A couple years ago I wound up on some ravaged world, found a battlefield where everything was dead – human _and_ monster –, scavenged this armor and these guns from it."

"That would be our homeworld, Sera" Baird replied. "And the 'monsters' were called the Locust. We'll tell ya the story sometime."

"I suppose there are a lot of stories to tell, for both sides" Celestia said as she walked up. "But let's head back to our main base first; it wouldn't do for half of us to freeze out here before story-time is over. And Sunset… Despite the… less-than-pleasant terms on which we parted, I'm _so_ glad to see you alright."

"…I'm not alright, Princess" Sunset said sadly. "I haven't been for eight years. I'll tell you the whole story when we're someplace warm. …Is she my replacement?" she gestured to Twilight.

"Successor," Celestia insisted, "not 'replacement'. She is Twilight Sparkle, bearer of the Harmony Element of Magic. I'll explain more in time. …And no, I did not choose her to wield the Element, so there's no 'favoritism' of her over you; the Element itself chose her."

"I see… So how're we getting to you guys' base?"

Celestia grinned as her horn lit up. The entire group was then enveloped in energy, disappearing in a burst of golden light.

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**DDF Main North-Continent Base**

**12:35 Hours**

Sunset Shimmer, presently in her pony form, sat on a couch in the smaller, lesser-frequented lounge, staring out the window at the thick, dark clouds that shadowed the land as they shed their snow. Also in the lounge were the alicorn sisters, the Harmony Six, Marcus & Dom, and Shepard & Garrus. Sunset seemingly ignored them as she watched the snow. She sighed as the telekinetically set down her teacup.

"When I fled through the mirror-portal," she finally spoke, "something went wrong in the dimensional translocation. Instead of wherever the portal's normal exit point was, I ended up on a different world, desolate and gray, and I'd been turned into a human. I was alone for six days, alone with my thoughts. I learned how to use my new body, I realized I could still access my magic and could in fact shift back & forth between forms, I trained, I fumed, I… looked at myself. Then, I met Brian Jameson. He was a year or two older than me, lived alone, no family, but he liked to help people. He knew how to fight, though, even had some weapons, despite being a total nice guy with a heart of gold. He kinda had to, really; the city he lived in, a place named Shale, had some fairly nasty crime problems, thugs kicking the helpless, that sort of thing.

"He figured out I wasn't naturally human, got me to tell him my story and everything. He told me that I'd probably wanna stick to my human form in public, mainly because a 'cute, cuddly little pony' would probably be hard to take seriously. …First time anyone ever called me 'cute'… He also made it a mission to help me with some of my… issues. I'll admit he managed to take me down a few pegs without alienating me or losing my respect, though I'm still not entirely sure how. And I'm _totally_ stumped on exactly how he managed to get me to actually start caring about other people, since it was a gradual process with no big singular 'Eureka' moment or anything. After he helped me learn what else I needed to fit in amongst humans, and taught me how to use guns – a necessity for how dangerous Shale was –, we ended up saving this one girl around my age, named Annabelle, from a gang; apparently one of them had tried to rape her and she killed him in self-defense, so his buddies came after her. We put a stop to that, and she joined us.

"Brian, Annabelle, and I had a long talk. We came to the decision that something needed to be done. So we did it. We trained, we gathered intel and supplies, and we set about bringing down the gangs and syndicates that had a stranglehold on the city. My magic made things easier, especially when I taught some of it to the other two. Even so, we knew we'd stand no chance doing that in a straight-up fight, so instead we assassinated key figures at certain points, or infiltrated hideouts and delivered damning evidence to city officials and law enforcement. In just eight months, we did the impossible: we rendered Shale clean.

"After that, we kept our training up, just in case. We got even better at the stealth, guerilla fighting, hit-and-run stuff, and some help from an old ex-military guy helped out too. Eventually, though, we came across some old tech out in the rocky wilds that actually enabled us to realm-jump. And we figured, 'Why stop with Shale? There could be other places out there that need help'. So we made sure everything at Shale was squared away, and then we headed out.

"Over the next five years or so, we traveled to different places in different realms, solving problems, helping people, toppling small criminal organizations, that sorta thing. We got real good at it, too. We picked up five more people, made ourselves a team. We were pretty diverse; hell, we had two aliens among us. We had an Unggoy named Valeb, who was Covvie Spec-Ops before he had to cut & run for 'heresy'. We also had a Turian Biotic, a guy named Mendicus Aurax. He was sick and tired of being forced into a 'Cabal', abandoned by his family, tossed out as a weapon when needed and then locked back up."

"Aurax?" Garrus cut in. "I know that family. I'm not surprised they'd forsake their son out like that; they've never been very partial to Biotics."

"And who are you?"

"Garrus Vakarian."

"Vakarian… Mendicus mentioned a C-Sec official named Vakarian who was actually nice to him."

"That'd be my father. He's never been much for prejudice of any sort. Neither have I, really. …One of the few things we _do_ have in common…"

"Anyway, for five years we did our thing. We took down a lot of gangs and syndicates. Hell, we even tangled with the Blue Suns this one time we swung by Mendicus' home realm, got 'em kicked off this one planet. I'll admit, I opened my heart to those guys. Brian and I were… close."

"How close?" Cadence asked, though the tiniest of grins she had suggested she already knew.

Sunset blushed lightly. "About four years in, he and I became… 'friends with benefits'. Or at least, that's what I told myself. I think Brian knew that I'd fallen in love with him before _I_ knew I'd fallen in love with him. I may have told myself and others we were just friends who happened to use each other's bodies for comfort, but I think he and – once they found out – everyone else on the team knew I cared for him more than that. Why else would I have trusted him enough to give him my First Time? At first we only did it with me in my human form, but eventually we worked up the guts to try a little interspecies action with my real form, and we found it just as fun, especially once we found out how sensitive a unicorn's horn is when it has mana running through it... He was something special. Even so, I only admitted my true feelings to myself about a month before… before the end." She closed her eyes. "Princess… All those years, you tried to get me to socialize, to make friends. I always rejected it, thinking I didn't need it, that friends would distract and weaken me. Those guys showed me otherwise. It took a while, but… I finally found other people that I could count on, who I could admit to myself being friends with. …And now they're all dead. Shows what I knew."

"What happened?" Celestia asked.

"We were betrayed by one of our own. Damien Vox…" she growled the name out. "He was one of our later additions – like, sixth out of our seven-person team. He was always kind of… off; more antisocial than I used to be, sorta dismissive of everyone else, kinda rude, unnervingly brutal in fights, only really interacted with the rest of us when necessary… We should've known he couldn't be trusted, but we were stupid. So when some dark entity offered him power, and he jumped at the chance and turned on us, we were caught totally off-guard. I got knocked out early in the fight. When I came to, Damien was gone, and everyone else except Brian was dead. He… He died in my arms a minute later. I had nothing left. My home was gone, my friends were gone, my lover was gone. _Everything_ was gone…

"After I pulled myself together, I swore I'd get revenge, no matter the cost. …That was eight years ago. Ever since then, I've been pursuing him across the dimensions, becoming stronger and tougher and faster, but I've never managed to actually catch him for real. The one time I almost did, he got away, but not before he replied to my accusations and threats by laughing in my face. He sold us out for power. He took _everything_ from me. And he _enjoyed_ it!" She drew her knife, gazing at her reflection in the polished blade "…Eight years ago, I lost my entire team except for Vox. One day I'll catch him, and _correct_ that. My teacher forsook me, my homeworld has no place for me, and my lover was taken from me. I have no home, no family, no friends, no other reason to exist. The only thing that matters, the only thing I have left, is revenge."

"…And what will you do once you have your revenge?" Princess Luna asked.

"I'll have nothing left to tether me to this life" Sunset replied. "I'll finally be able to…" she pointed the blade at her own throat "rejoin my friends, and see Brian again."

Some of the Harmony Bearers gasped at the implication. Celestia felt her heart ache.

"So that's it?" Shepard asked. "You plan to just throw your life away?"

"I don't _have_ a life anymore, Shepard" Sunset replied. "Vox took it from me. I exist, but I no longer live. I'm just a ghost, wandering the mortal realm to attend to unfinished business. No-one who cares for me is left. No-one will miss me."

"_Delta Squad, Team Shepard, please report to the briefing room for a mission assignment_" someone announced over the PA system.

Marcus, Dom, Shepard, and Garrus moved to leave, reluctant to leave this conversation at such a point but not really having much choice in the matter.

"We'll let you know how things go" Cadence whispered to them as they left.

"You really feel nothing to keep yourself going other than the need for vengeance?" Rarity asked.

"I haven't let myself do or feel anything not related to getting my revenge for several years now. If I… If I let those feelings out, I'd never be able to get them back in again. I have to keep it together at all times, because if I fall apart I don't have anyone to put me back together again. I have to keep moving until I reach the end, because if I ever stop I might not start again. …I'm sorry for dumping all of this on you people. Once I get a lead on where Vox is, I'll take my leave, and you won't have to deal with me anymore."

"No" Celestia spoke up. "You've been alone for too long, Sunset. Not anymore. We will find and deal with Damien Vox together; the Dimensional Defense Force will stand by you in this. …_I _will stand by you."

"And so will we" Twilight spoke up, the other five Bearers nodding.

"You don't have to take this on alone anymore, Sunset" Cadence said. "We all want to help you. Please let us."

"I can't" Sunset said, emotion leaking into her voice. "Being around others will hurt, because it will remind me of those I've lost. I… I'm scared to make new friends, because I know something will go horribly wrong and I'll have to watch _them_ die, too! B-Besides, Celestia threw me out! She despises me! T-There's no way you could ever-"

Sunset was stopped by Celestia pulling her into a hug, forelimbs and wings coming around to embrace and envelop the stunned girl.

"I'm so sorry you had to learn the lessons I was always trying to teach you in the worst of ways" Celestia said softly. "I know full well the pain of being betrayed by someone you trusted. And I've buried my share of friends in the three millennia I've lived on our world, so I know that pain as well. …I never hated you, Sunset Shimmer. I was disappointed in the path you were taking, but I _never_ hated you. You and Twilight are my students, and my children. …No matter what, we will stand by you. If you fall, we'll pick you back up. If you falter, we'll give you strength to move forward. Together we'll ensure that your friends and lover can rest easy. You can stop running from your feelings now. And… if you would have me, I would now gladly accept you alongside Twilight, as my student again."

Despite herself, despite the painful memories associated with the last time she was her old mentor, Sunset found herself returning Celestia's hug, holding on tight and burying her face in the kind-hearted alicorn's chest. It started with a little tension and trembles as the first few tears squeezed out, and then to quiet sobs and whimpers that steadily grew louder, and within a minute came the body-shaking sobs and muffled wails as a decade of tightly-repressed pain finally broke free. Celestia's motherly aura coaxed out everything that Sunset had kept locked up inside her heart, eight years of held-back tears coming out all at once.

They'd iron out the details of things later. Right now, Sunset needed this emotional catharsis more than anything. And Celestia needed to give her prodigal daughter a well-deserved welcome home.

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Same Location**

**13:30 Hours**

The others had left to tend to other duties, but Celestia lay with Twilight nuzzled up against one side and Sunset on the other, a wing draped over each of them. Her and Twilight's presence had worked to calm Sunset down, and now the weary mare allowed herself to relax in a warmth she hadn't felt in nearly 15 years. Twilight's mind, however, was on something else.

"So, um, Princess…" she worked up the nerve to say. "Where there any other previous students before Sunset Shimmer?"

She and Sunset both felt as Celestia seemed to wilt a little in response. "Yes" the princess replied in a sad tone. "There was one other, 500 years ago."

"Really?" Sunset asked. "…Why did you wait almost half a millennium to take a second student? And why did you never mention him before?"

"He is a sore subject for me" Celestia replied. "I will tell you two about him, and perhaps you will understand a little of why I've been so cautious with the rate of your teachings."

She sighed, gathering herself as she called up the memories.

"His name was Küchen. He was a unicorn stallion, and partially because of an impulsive rash decision on my part, he became one of the worst monsters in Equestrian history. I pushed him too hard, hoping to take advantage of a possible way to free Luna 500 years early, and as a result of my mistakes he fell to Darkness. He created several dark-magic spells, compiling them in a cursed tome bound with dragon skin and written with gryphons' blood. Hundreds of innocent ponies were kidnapped and killed in his experiments. He… He skinned his childhood friend, made his hide into a blanket, and shipped it to me as a 'gift', along with that infernal tome. He sought a way to become an alicorn, not knowing of Luna's & my extra-planar origins and the impossibility of a mortal pony becoming one through some random 'ritual'. When I finally found him, I tried to make him see reason, but he rejected my words as lies, continued attacking me until the very end. To save my subjects from any future 'experiments' of his, I… I had no choice but to kill him."

Twilight and Sunset were silent as they processed all this. Celestia then turned to her wayward student.

"_That_ is why I was going 'slowly' with your teachings, Sunset, and why I resorted to banishing you from the castle when you began to slip. I was hoping to stop you from becoming another Küchen."

"I… Even at my worst, I never would've actually killed anyone…" Sunset said.

"Küchen likely said the same thing to himself when he first left the castle and began to travel the world, before he started taking ponies for his experiments."

Sunset began trembling at the mental image of herself as a black-hearted, bloodthirsty monster, eyes filled with malice and hooves & horn stained with blood. Celestia chased the mental image away with a nuzzle.

"I failed him utterly as a teacher" Celestia said. "Almost like how I failed you…"

"You didn't totally mess up as a teacher for me" Sunset replied. "It just… took a few extra years and a few teacher's-aides to hammer the message home. And you did right by Twilight, from what I can see; third time's the charm, eh?"

Twilight chuckled. "Sunset, I have a moderate inferiority complex, performance anxiety, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder that at times is near-crippling. I'm not in the best of shape either." She then realized what her words might imply, eyes going wide. "O-Of course, those aren't _your_ fault, Princess Celestia." She giggled nervously.

"No, they kinda are" the Princess admitted. "I was the one who sent you on those little missions with the intent on keeping you humble that ended up causing all those issues you have. I tried to avoid the mistakes I made the first two times around and ended up going way too far in the other direction."

The trio was quiet for a few moments.

"…You really think we'll be able to find Vox before he realm-hops out again?" Sunset asked.

"If not," Celestia replied, "we will continue helping you pursue him until he is caught and punished. For now, Sunset Shimmer, take some time to relax. You most certainly have earned it."

Sunset nodded, snuggling up beneath her mentor's wing.

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

**Next Time: **More Covenant-fighting, and the "old enemy resurfaced" that I promised in last chapter's "Next Time" segment.


	5. Night and Knights

SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR MOST DISCLAIMERS

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE & CHARACTER PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Nereid Sector, Hazred System, Al-Hazred**

**Day 8 – 19:10 Hours**

Sunset had recently finished watching the recorded 'footage' of everything that had happened so far with the various realms, including everything on Belka and Al-Hazred up to her arrival. Celestia's recent reveal of her 'family history' was a bit of a shocker, as was the similarity between her own story and Garrus', though Sidonis was plainly remorseful over his actions, whereas Vox had made it abundantly clear that he was most definitely _not_.

During the five hours she was in the temporal displacement area to watch everything, most of the others had headed out to other assignments. Now, though, the DDF was planning something, and they were including her in it. She, in human form, walked into the briefing room, where a hologram of Colonel Holland stood in the center of the room, which was also attended by a few others.

"_Glad you could join us, Ms. Shimmer_" he said. "_As I was saying to the others, our sensors have detected some strange readings coming from a Forerunner installation in the eastern sector. Unfortunately, it's in Covenant territory. We want you to travel to our eastern base and meet up with an assault force there, which will then fight their way through enemy territory and reach the facility, clear it of any resistance, and then call in dropships which will bring in more forces. After what happened the last time we went exploring a Forerunner site here, we're not taking any chances._"

"How will I get there, sir?" she asked.

"_You'll be traveling in an M44 Hammerhead tank, along with Cpl. Baird and PFC Byrne of Delta Squad; the rest of their squad will be part of the dropship groups at the end. The Covenant have been sending out scout patrols, so expect some light resistance. Once you reach our east base, you'll check in with Lieutenant Lanstar and the Master Chief, and take part in the 'tank march' to the target facility._" He turned to Baird. "_You get all that, soldier?_"

"Yes, sir" Baird replied. "...And I just wanna say that I'm damn glad you're more like Hoffman than the _first_ Colonel I served under."

"_From what I can gather, Col. Loomis was an incompetent idiot who didn't deserve his uniform. If I had my way, you'd probably still be an officer._"

"Eh, I've kinda gotten used to serving under Marcus now. But thanks for the offer."

Holland chuckled. "_Right. Dismissed._"

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**En Route to DDF Eastern Base**

**Day 8 – 19:45 Hours**

The modified Hammerhead sped across the snow, leaving a wrecked Covenant Ghost in its wake.

"Hey mom, dad, are we there yet?" Sunset snarked.

"We'll get there when we get there" Sam replied, playing along.

"Don't make me turn this hovertank around" Baird joined in.

"Joke time's over! Another Covenant force-recon squad with two Ghosts, up ahead!" Sam pointed out.

As the Hammerhead moved in to attack, the Covenant group spotted them first, firing small-arms and the Ghosts' cannons, which dissipated on contact with a shimmering field that clung to the tank. The main gun opened up, destroying one of the ghosts, while the coaxial machinegun started shredding Grunts.

"_So_ glad our guys stuck energy shields and an MG turret on this thing" Baird said. "And upped the armor. …Man, what were the original designers thinking, making a glass cannon with no way to defend itself from close-in infantry?"

With the way clear, the Hammerhead sped on. After only five more minutes, they reached the DDF's East Base. The hover-tank pulled up and 'parked' alongside three M808 Scorpions and an M35 Mako, and its three occupants stepped out and walked inside.

"Glad you could make it" Teana said. "Our target's about 50 minutes' drive northeast from here at the Scorpion tanks' pace. We're kinda bordering the Covenant's territory already, and we'll have to move fairly deep into it to reach our objective. Moderate to heavy resistance is expected. Spartan-117 will be driving the lead Scorpion, and I'll be his MG gunner. Shepard, Tali, and Kaidan are in the Mako, Simmons from Blood-Gulch Team will be driving Scorpion Two with Twilight as gunner, and Zaeed & Cole have Scorpion Three. We leave in five minutes, so be ready."

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**En Route to Forerunner Facility**

**Day 8 – 20:25 Hours**

(MUSIC: _Halo 4 OST Vol. 2 _– "Push Through")

The tank convoy rolled across the snowy ground, reflected 'moon'-light from Al-Hazred's dead partner world Ori-Hazred providing some illumination through breaks in the clouds. They had just crossed into Covenant territory a minute or so ago, so everyone was on high alert.

"Contacts spotted" the Master Chief reported. "And they see us, too."

Three Ghosts came speeding toward the convoy. A shot from the Mako took out one, and the Chief's tank blasted another. The third turned tail and ran, a Scorpion shell barely missing it as it boosted off into the distance.

"He's gonna tell his buddies we're here…" Shepard said. "Get ready for the fun part."

Sure enough, within a couple minutes a trio of Covenant Phantoms flew in from the east, dropping off three Wraiths and a handful of troops wielding heavy weapons. The Hammerhead slid to the side to dodge fuel-rod fire until a shell from Simmons' Scorpion blew the offending Brute to bits, while the Mako maneuvered behind one of the Wraiths and blasted it twice in the backside, destroying it. Teana and Twilight used the tank-mounted machinegun turrets to cut down several Brutes and Grunts, while Cole used the third tank's MG turret to distract another of the Wraiths so the Hammerhead could slide in behind and hit it where it hurt. The third Wraith went down to concentrated 90mm fire from the three Scorpions.

The convoy rolled on, soon coming across a Covenant lookout post. A beam rifle snipe-shot from atop a lookout tower narrowly missed Twilight, scoring the armor of the tank; Simmons responded by pointing the tank's main gun at the tower's top and blasting it, obliterating the sniper and his nest. The Mako's machinegun shredded a Brute trying to get into position to fire Brute Shot rounds at the Scorpions' turret gunners, while the Master Chief responded to a charging angry Brute by hitting the accelerator and running it over with the 66-ton tank he was driving.

"And we just washed this thing, too…" Cortana quipped.

The Hammerhead's rapid-fire cannon cleared out the rest of the infantry, and the tank squad moved on. For the next seven minutes they moved deeper into enemy territory in their march to reach the target facility. Two separate Ghost ambushes and a pair of Wraiths met their end during this time. As they progressed, they came upon a crashed Pelican, shot down by Covenant air patrols… along with its cargo, a still-intact Scorpion tank. A sizable enemy force was coming from further ahead, so the tank squad took defensive position around and behind the crashed Pelican.

As the fighting started, Simmons' Scorpion slid in behind the Pelican. Twilight, seeing that the DDF force needed a little more boom to it, jumped out of the tank's machinegun turret and sprinted over to the Scorpion that had come loose from the Pelican. Lifting the hatch, she jumped in and started the mechanical beast up, just as an enemy Ghost slid into view while the other tanks were distracted.

"Let's see…" she said, examining the controls. She pressed something, and cooling vents in the back opened. "Whoops. That's not it." She tried again, and a shell was fired from the main gun, blowing the Ghost to bits. "_There_ we go!"

After taking about half a minute to get acquainted with the controls (helped by information that appeared on her helmet's HUD), she rolled out to join the battle, firing two rounds into the back of a Wraith that was trying to hit Shepard's Mako. The addition of a fourth Scorpion's gun quickly finished off what remained of the attackers, and the convoy rolled out again. A few minutes later, another Covenant checkpoint up ahead was obliterated from long range, the hapless Brutes not even getting the chance to shoot back.

"Heads up!" Cortana said. "Banshees inbound!"

Everyone's attention turned to the sky, where a squadron of 10 Brute-piloted Banshees was inbound from the northeast. The tanks immediately began firing at the approaching flyers, managing to shoot down three before the others took evasive action and opened fire with their plasma cannons. Fuel-rod shots followed; the Mako and Hammerhead were nimble enough that the blasts thrown at them were easily dodged, but the slower Scorpions were barely able to avoid the fire sent their way. Zaeed's Scorpion took a hit, damaging the armor but not hitting anything vital and not causing any harm to him or Cole. Twilight winced as a narrow miss rocked her tank as it exploded right next to it, and then she started to panic as she saw two Banshees lining up to bomb her, her retaliatory shot missing. …And then a hail of surface-to-air missiles came in from the left, blowing nearly all of the enemy flyers out of the sky.

"_And that's one more time I've saved your ass, Twi_" Rainbow Dash's voice was heard over the radio.

Three UNSC Mantises stomped in from the left, using their chainguns to bring down the few remaining Banshees.

"_Hey, Simmons!_" Grif said. "_Mind if we tag along?_"

"Sure!" Simmons replied. "The more the merrier! We could use the anti-air."

"_Hey, Boss!_" Marie radioed from the third Mantis. "_I figured you could use the company._"

"Heh. Welcome to the parade, Marie" Teana replied.

"I'll be surprised if those Covvie bastards try to pick a fight against this much firepower" Zaeed said.

"Yeah, even the Locust wouldn't mess with all this!" Cole added.

"The Covenant aren't the type to back down" the Master Chief said. "Between their religious dogma and the bloodlust of the Brutes, I don't expect we'll get a reprieve any time soon."

The now-larger convoy kept moving, and after a few minutes the glowing top of the target facility could be seen in the distance up ahead. Unfortunately, as they started maneuvering around a large, tall snow bank, one of the many huge 'clouds' up ahead began to move.

"Ohhhh, hell" Sunset said as the 1,782-meter Covenant Battlecruiser became discernible only a handful of kilometers away, pointed in their direction. "Do you think it sees us?"

"I hope not" Simmons replied. "One plasma torpedo from that thing and we're all vapor."

"How are we going to 'clear the way' for our dropships with _that_ owning the skies?" Shepard wondered.

"We'll think of something" Cortana replied, sounding a bit unsure herself. "Its shields are down, at least."

"Lot of good that'll do us" Teana said. "Against that thing's armor, our guns will be like throwing crumpled-up balls of paper."

As they cleared the snow bank, coming out around 200 meters from the facility, they saw one last group of Covenant standing between them and their goal. Wraith mortars arced through the air, and the tanks and walkers maneuvered to dodge and return fire. The Mantises shot down the few Banshees amongst the enemy force, the Mako and the Hammerhead cleared out Ghosts and infantry, and the Scorpions focused fire on the Wraiths. Explosions lit the night as the DDF force steamrolled through the Covenant.

Unfortunately, all this activity caught the attention of the enemy battlecruiser, which began to slowly fly towards the structure and the strike-force. However, Cortana then 'smirked' as her long-range sensors detected a burst of Cherenkov radiation in the stratosphere above the cloud cover, followed by a recognizable IFF tag. She quickly sent a data-packet explaining the situation to the new arrival, and then sat back and watched. Just as the hostile ship got uncomfortably close, its plasma turrets glowing red like angry eyes in the night's dark, a 3,275-meter hunk of heavily-armored and -armed metal descended through the clouds, directly in the battlecruiser's path and facing right at it. The Covenant ship's commander panicked, and the ship's crew did not have time to raise the vessel's shields before a shot from the UNSC _Vladivostok_'s MAC punched a hole clean through the warship from bow to stern. Fire and plasma spewed out from the battlecruiser's gaping wounds, as the ship dropped like the world's biggest rock to the snowy ground, kicking up a massive plume of dust and snow, its nose coming to rest only a few hundred meters from the Forerunner installation.

"_Looks like we had good timing_" the human supercarrier's CO said. "_You folks alright down there?_"

"We're fine, Rear-Admiral" Cortana replied. "Thanks for the timely assist."

"_No problem. Need anything else?_"

"No, we're good. We're going to signal a waiting flight of our dropships that the approach to this facility is clear. Then we're going exploring inside."

"_Roger that. We'll stay overhead and watch for any Covenant survivors._"

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Forerunner Facility**

**Day 8 – 21:02 Hours**

As the outside temperature dropped down below zero with nightfall, everyone was glad that the Forerunner structure's climate control was still working, keeping things at a comfortable 68 degrees Fahrenheit inside. Besides the people who'd been part of the vehicle convoy, they were joined by Sarah, Trixie, Alicia, Erika & Mariko, and Mana K.

"Alright" Teana said. "We have no idea what we're going to encounter here, but we are assuming it's dangerous until further notice."

The Master Chief walked over to a terminal and plugged Cortana in.

"I've got a map of the facility" the AI said after a couple seconds. "Uploading it to everyone now. According to the specs, most of the facility is contained within a slipspace pocket, similar to that within Onyx's core but much smaller, accessed by a translocation portal. That 'pocket' is also where our anomalous signals are coming from. The portal is in the room up ahead."

"Let's get this over with, then" Baird said.

They all moved into the next room, as Cortana – now back in the Chief's armor – remotely activated the portal. Everyone stepped through the swirling blue-and-black vortex. They emerged into a wide, open chamber with three hallways leading deep into the structure.

"Which way do we go?" the Chief asked.

"All three hallways lead to the same location" Cortana replied.

"Okay" Shepard said. "We'll take the middle one. Baird, Cole, Byrne, Kurama, Simmons, Grif, stay here and guard the portal, just in case."

The six nodded, Mariko taking a seat atop the portal generator as she cradled her needle rifle. The rest of the group then headed down the pathway. For around 10 minutes, everything was quiet and peaceful, some of the group striking up some quiet small talk. Suddenly, though, motion trackers detected movement around the next corner. They rounded the corner, to see several four-foot-long droids, quadruped in nature, climbing up the walls and disappearing into passages and shadows. They looked to be mostly silver metal, with several glowing red portions.

"What were those?" Tali asked.

"They looked Forerunner in origin" Cortana replied. "Maybe they're maintenance drones, like Constructor-type Sentinels."

The group moved ahead, into a larger room. One of the droids, with several sharp spikes on its back, let out a 'howl', and in response several of the machines appeared. Then, they all opened fire on the DDF group, some firing small bolts of hard-light and the few spiked ones firing fully automatic barrages of the bolts. Everyone took cover, shields flaring, and then returned fire. Teana scored the first kill, a headshot with Mirage Pistol making the targeted bot explode. With that weak-spot in mind, everyone else aimed for the glowing heads, and soon the field was clear.

"I caught a tiny burst of data when one of the bigger ones was destroyed" Cortana reported. "The data's missing huge chunks, though, and I'm only able to make out one word: Promethean. …According to data from the Ark, the Prometheans were an elite branch of the Forerunner warrior caste. These things aren't maintenance bots. They're Forerunner battle droids."

"If they're the source of the anomalous readings," Kaidan said, "something must've activated them _before_ we got here. The Covenant, maybe?"

"Not likely. I'm not picking up any Covenant transponders in this slipspace pocket zone. And the schematics indicate this facility was _not_ used to store Flood, so they're not the ones who woke the droids up, either."

The rather large group kept moving, the Master Chief on point. As they entered a high-ceilinged hallway, new entities made themselves know. Large bipedal constructs, around 10 feet tall, were briefly visible standing on ledges above, looking down at the passing group before then vanishing into slipspace. Everyone slowly and cautiously advanced down the hall, the Master Chief in front by a fair bit.

"And now we're being hunted" the Spartan said.

"Whatever these things are," Cortana said, "I get the feeling they don't want us here. We need t- LOOK OUT!-!"

One of the big ones dropped in from above, pinning the Master Chief to the floor. Its helmet opened down the middle, as it screamed/roared in his face with a hardlight skull that looked disturbingly human. The Chief punched the thing in the face and then kicked it off him, and several of the watching team opened fire on it, only for it to retreat through slipspace.

"I'd say that confirms my hunch on us not being welcome" Cortana said, sounding a bit 'breathless' from being startled. "Judging by that peek under the hood, I'd guess these constructs must be mimetic in nature."

"Damn things are _huge_!" Marie said. "And did you see that energy blade on its left arm?"

"I think it had energy shielding, too" Tali added.

"It did" Cortana said. "And it had an auto-turret module as well; I could see it attached to its upper back. These things must be the heavy hitters of the Prometheans' war droids."

"Should we call this whole thing off and head back?' Twilight asked.

"No" Shepard replied. "What if whatever's down there won't be satisfied with just chasing us out? We've come this far already; might as well finish."

The group moved on, now training their eyes and their guns in every direction. As they neared the end of the hall, two more of the large war-droids teleported in and attacked, one of them firing an automatic weapon similar to the spiked quadrupeds' blasters, the other wielding what looked like a scoped rifle that fired three-round bursts. The Chief, Shepard, and Sunset focused fire on the rifle-wielding one, wearing down its shields and then dealing enough damage to bring it down. But instead of collapsing or exploding, it rapidly dissolved into glowing orange particles that quickly faded away, leaving behind a glowing mote of light hovering just above the floor. The second one tanked Zaeed's shields as it charged at him, only to be blindsided by a swing of Sarah's gravity hammer that slammed it into the wall, dissolving away moments later.

"I've discovered something interesting about our new friends" Cortana said. "When the big ones explode and fade away, that momentary flash we're seeing is actually a data purge."

"Can you tap into it?" the Master Chief asked.

"So far, I've pulled multiple strings referring to the big ones as 'Promethean Knights'; the little ones are 'Crawlers', and there's a third type called 'Watchers' that we haven't encountered yet. Beyond that, though, things get a bit dense."

"Knights, Crawlers, and Watchers" Mana said. "At least we know what to call them now."

Over the next 15 minutes, they made their way deeper in, following Cortana's directions, and fought off several Promethean ambushes (mostly Crawlers, with a few Knights). Eventually, they reached a large central room that looked empty, with a ledge against the far wall. There was a sudden flash of light up on the ledge, as an armored figure appeared, looking down at them. Several of the group quickly recognized her.

"Impossible…" Teana breathed out. "How are you here?-! You're dead! Mel Johnson cut your head in half!"

"I was as surprised as you are to discover I'd survived" Eve T'Lesh replied. "It seems, upon closer examination and study, that I have become something called a 'bio-digital life-form', much like your _Wolkenritter_ or the beings called Digimon. Essentially, my cells are made of magically materialized data and raw mana, rather than organic compounds and molecules. I can automatically self-repair from damage that would spell certain doom for a base organic. I reconstituted here, and discovered that my Master's power enables me to exert my will over the mechanized warriors that dwell here, so that they may assist me in carrying out my goal: extinction of the human race."

"You don't have to do this!" Shepard tried to reason with her. "All the people who hurt you are already dead! Don't punish an entire species, billions of innocents who would've been sickened and horrified by what was done to you, just for the actions of a few thousand! That's lunacy!"

"Your words are as empty as your species' hopes of redeeming itself, _human_" she snarled. She struck her staff's bottom against the floor, and a squad of Promethean Knights warped in at her side. "From these beings, I have learned of a kindred soul who shares my belief that humans deserve destruction, imprisoned by his fellows for daring to act upon his righteous goal. I will depart now, and leave you all to be slaughtered by these 'Prometheans', whilst I seek out their master. I will find and free the Ur-Didact, and together he & I shall return humanity to the dust whence it came!"

(PROMETHEAN BATTLE MUSIC: _Halo 4 _OST – "Ascendancy")

She 'jumped' out via space-bridge, and Promethean Crawlers came pouring in from all sides as the Knights leapt down into the fray as well. A curious sound echoed out as one of the Knights deployed from its back a floating construct with two large wheel-like parts on either side. As the Knights and Crawlers opened fire, and the DDF did so in turn, the flyer first fired its own weapon at them before then projecting a hardlight shield to protect a Knight from a Concussive Shot from Zaeed.

"I'm guessing that's a Watcher" Teana said.

Mana turned her MA5D assault rifle on the Watcher, but the airborne droid had energy shields that protected it long enough to fly up out of danger, moving to the back of the room. It projected a blue beam of some sorts onto a spot atop the ledge, and after a few seconds a large construct materialized. With a charging whine, the turret fired a thick crimson beam of energy. Marie hit the turret with a Super-Missile shot, and a few rounds from Shepard's pistol finished it off. The Watcher then projected its beam onto a spot on the floor, and five more Crawlers were teleported in to join the fight.

"So it can protect Knights and summon Crawlers, and it can shoot, _and_ it flits around to make it hard to hit, and it has shields" Marie surmised. "I hate it already."

Crawler parts already littered the floor as the DDF team fought off their attackers. The Master Chief and Tali focused fire to bring down a Knight. Then, as they were busy fending off Crawlers, the Watcher buzzed in and brought its beam in on the glowing mote of light left behind by the Knight's destruction. After several seconds of continuous beam, the glowing orange particles came back together, the Knight reformed and ready to fight again.

"Oh, that's just bullshit!" Mana complained.

"Okay, now I _really_ hate Watchers!" Marie said. "Somebody take that thing out already!"

Sarah threw a well-aimed plasma grenade at the Watcher, but the little droid snagged the in-flight grenade with a narrow beam, swinging it around a few times to build momentum and then tossing it right back. Sarah cursed and swung her gravity hammer, a pulse of gravitic energy knocking the grenade away. Kaidan hit the Watcher with an Overload, stripping its shields and stunning it, and then several pink shards from Erika's Needler embedded into it. The resulting pink explosion tore the Watcher apart, bits & pieces falling to the ground below. Erika then used her weapon to destroy a Knight, while the Master Chief dodged another Knight's blade strike, ripped its blade arm off and rammed the blade through its face, destroying it. Sunset's Lancer, Zaeed's Avenger, and Twilight's rapid-fire spell cut the Crawlers' numbers down to size, and a frag grenade from Teana destroyed a Crawler Alpha and three of its base-form fellows. Rainbow Dash tackled a Knight hard enough to near-totally drain its shields, knocking it into the path of Alicia's Haken Saber strike, which diagonally bisected it. Trixie cast a _Raijū Bashiri no Jutsu _that began tearing into Crawlers, aided by Tali's Combat Drone.

After another half a minute or so, the last foe fell, a Crawler Alpha decapitated by Mirage Longsword. "We need to get out of here" Teana said.

"There's three ways back" Shepard pointed out. "We'll split into a group for each of them, head for the portal chamber as fast as we can. Let's hope Eve didn't leave us any more surprises."

**-**_**Break**_**-**

Sunset Shimmer, still in human form and gripping her M2 Lancer assault rifle, moved cautiously but quickly down the curved hallway, followed by three others – Mana, Trixie (currently still in pony form), and Alicia who was supplementing her Device with a Forerunner submachine gun – called a Z-130 'Suppressor', according to Cortana – that she'd scavenged off one of the Knights in the earlier battle. When they reached the doorway at the end of the hall and entered the next room, a sizable pack of Crawlers was waiting for them. The droids opened fire on the quartet, forcing them into cover. Once their shields had recharged, Mana leaned out with her BR85 rifle, firing four bursts and killing four Crawlers. One Crawler tried to leap over the cover and pounce on Trixie, only to be sliced in half by a swing of Lochaber's energy blade. Trixie returned the favor by tackling a Crawler trying to sneak up behind Alicia.

A few Gnasher blasts and the application of a chainsaw bayonet from Sunset helped clear out most of the rest, with Trixie and Mana finishing the Crawler pack off. Just as the team made ready to cross the room and leave, however, a Watcher flew out, summoning a laser turret atop a pedestal near the far door. Focused fire from Sunset's Lancer took the Watcher out, but by then the turret finished charging up and fired its crimson beam of energy, chewing into Sunset's shields and forcing her back into cover. Alicia pulled off a Sonic Move, reappearing behind the turret, and slashed it with Lochaber. She then finished it off with a burst of fire from her Suppressor, destroying the turret and enabling the foursome to continue on. On their way out, Mana scavenged a small device from one of the Crawlers, along with what looked like ammo packs.

"This would be the Prometheans' sidearm, I presume?" she wondered.

"Device identified by UNSC AI Cortana as Forerunner Z-110 'Boltshot' Directed Energy Pistol" Lochaber stated. "It possesses a shotgun-burst charged attack in addition to its normal firing mode."

Mana grabbed some ammo for the weapon, and the quartet moved on. A few more empty hallways later, they reached another room, where three Knights teleported in to meet them. One of them looked different, however; it had several large red fins sticking up from its back, and it carried a Z-180 'Scattershot' shotgun, like what Kanba Kanade carried. The two basic Knights went right and left in a pincer move, while the shotgun-wielder charged right down the middle, its energy shields deflecting assault rifle fire from Sunset and Mana. Alicia quickly threw out a Shield spell that blocked a conical spread of disintegrating pellets from hitting Mana in the chest, and then brought Lochaber around in Keyblade Form to block a swing from one of the other Knights' arm blades. Trixie, body crackling with a low-level Lightning Armor, tackled the shotgun-wielder from behind, stunning it and depleting its shields. Mana then fired a charged blast from her Boltshot that blew off the Knight's helmet, allowing a three-round burst from her battle rifle to finish it off. She tossed her Boltshot and its ammo to Trixie, who assumed her (armored) human form to more easily handle it (her still-present psychosomatic total magic block precluded her from using telekinesis), and then snagged the fallen Knight's Scattershot. Sunset and Alicia, meanwhile, had just finished taking out the other two Knights, the latter scavenging more ammo for her Suppressor. After 15 seconds to catch their breath, they kept moving.

The next two rooms had more Crawlers supplemented by a basic Knight, and were easily cleared out. However, the next larger room had another new type of Knight, this one a little taller than the other types and with armor with glowing portions that almost looked like yellow-hot magma. And it was carrying a rather large cannon, which it then pointed at the group and fired. A cluster of five glowing red streams of explosive particles rapidly traveled through the air in a straight line toward the team. Everyone scattered, barely making it out in time as the cluster hit the ground where they'd been, exploding and also releasing the five red spheres, which bounced in different directions and exploded again, saturating the area in destructive energy.

"Crap, that could've literally vaporized all four of us in one shot!" Sunset said, she and the other three having barely made it into cover. "We need to bring this big bastard down!"

"And how are we supposed to do that without being reduced to ashes?" Mana asked.

"There's plenty of cover between us and him; we'll make our way cover to cover until we're in range! And be sure to spread out; we don't need two or more of us close enough to each other to be taken out in one hit!"

On Sunset's signal, the four girls darted out from their cover, racing forward into the room towards more cover. A small auto-turret summoned by the Knight Commander rapid-fired hardlight projectiles that pounded Sunset's shields but did not break through them as she reached her cover, while the Commander conserved its Z-390 Incineration Cannon's armor, waiting for a better shot as the other three girls reached their cover as well. They continued their slow advanced across the room, dodging autoturret shots and the rare blast from the Knight's cannon. Finally, they got close enough for Alicia to charge in, rolling underneath a cannon shot. Mana used her battle rifle to take out the mini-turret just as Alicia swung her Device's blade at the Knight, locking with its arm-blade and trying to push it back. Trixie rushed in, back in pony form, and delivered an electrified rising double kick that knocked out the Knight's shields. Then, Sunset ran in, her Lancer's chainsaw revving, and cut deep into the construct's chest, sparks flying everywhere. A blast from Mana's Scattershot ended it, the Knight Commander dissolving away.

"Okay…" Sunset said, as she picked up the Incineration Cannon. "Let's keep moving. Hope the others are doing as well as we are…"

**-**_**Break**_**-**

Erika brought the Stroke of Midnight down on another Crawler's head, destroying it. She'd been separated from the rest of her group by this most recent ambush, falling back on the defensive as some of them pushed her into a neighboring room, where the door closed, cutting her off from the others. She was relying on her Keyblade, mostly because she wanted to conserve Needler ammo for Knights and Watchers, neither of which her group had encountered since that last big fight after Eve left.

Just as the last Crawler fell to her blade, she heard the telltale sound of a Promethean Knight warping in behind her. She spun to face it, but couldn't avoid the backhand that sent her halfway across the room, her energy shields drained enough for that high-pitched beeping to go off in her ears. She barely had time to bring her Keyblade up to block a downward strike from the Knight's arm-blade, groaning with exertion as she tried to push it back, as the Knight's helmet parted and it roared in her face. It quickly withdrew, unbalancing her blade and arms, and then struck her in the head with its weapon hand, her vision briefly blurring and ears ringing as the high-pitched beeping turned into a much lower tone that indicated total shield failure. Her Keyblade was then knocked out of her loosened grip, skidding across the floor.

Then the Knight wrapped its hand around her neck, hoisting her up and holding her off the ground, legs dangling and kicking. Erika's hands frantically grasped at the construct's wrist as the cold metal hand completely stopped her from breathing, feeble attempts to draw in oxygen squeaking out. She felt fear blossoming inside her as the Knight hissed and then brought its other arm back, preparing to ram its blade through her heart.

Suddenly, a loud boom rang out from the side. The Knight flinched, its shields flaring. Another shotgun blast followed, the construct's shields being torn through and its body beginning to rapidly disassemble into glowing orange particles. Erika fell to the floor with a thud, on her hands & knees coughing and gasping for breath, as in her field of vision a pair of digitigrade feet walked up to her. She felt as three-digit hands came in to help her into a sitting position and softly pat her back as she got her breathing under control again.

"T-Thanks" the young girl gasped out. "You saved my life, Tali."

"Let's say we're even for you helping Shepard save mine on Haestrom" the Quarian replied. "You okay?"

"Y-Yeah. Yeah, I'm good."

Erika got to her feet, a little shaky for a few seconds, and summoned her Keyblade back to her. She looked up at Tali and nodded, and the two headed back out to rejoin the others. The floor around Shepard, Kaidan, and Zaeed was littered with Crawler parts. Tali was now carrying the Z-250 'Lightrifle' dropped by the Knight she'd just saved Erika from, examining it with a careful eye.

"Hmm… Three-round burst fire, 3x zoom scope, 36-round magazine allowing for 12 shots before reload… Not bad."

"Yeah, the Forerunners built some good stuff" Shepard said. He then noticed the redness of Erika's neck, and a few tiny blood-spots from where claws had just barely penetrated the flesh. "You okay, kid?"

"A Knight ambushed her," Tali said, "had her by the throat. I killed it."

"I g-got careless and overpowered" Erika replied. "Sorry you h-had to bail me out, Tali."

"Don't worry, Erika. The fact these things can teleport like that is definitely not something any of us are used to, so one catching you by surprise isn't really that embarrassing."

"Plus the damn things are huge" Zaeed added. "Easily as strong as a Blood-Raging Krogan or even a pissed-off Sangheili, maybe more. Knocked the Spartan-2 down, even. Being outmuscled by one isn't shameful."

"We should probably get a move on" Kaidan said.

"Agreed" Shepard replied. "Move out, everyone."

The quintet hurried along, passing into another long hallway… and having a light-fast crimson beam pass so close to Shepard's head that it made his shields flare. Everyone dove for cover, wedging themselves behind decorative sticking-out-things along the walls. At the far end of the hallway were two Promethean Knights, each with three large fins along their upper-back carapaces. Each of them wielded a long, thin weapon that was unmistakably a sniper rifle of some sort.

"Great" Shepard said. "_And_ they have snipers."

Shepard and Tali both sent out Combat Drones, and the Knight Lancers fired their Z-750 'Binary Rifles' at the little constructs, destroying them. As the Knights reloaded, Shepard and Tali focused Viper and Lightrifle fire on the one on the right, taking out its shields. The Knight then shifted its fins and its arm blade, and then rapidly teleported forward in a zigzag motion, crossing the length of the entire hallway in only a second's time, emerging from a teleport with blade swung at Shepard's neck. Shepard let himself fall backward to dodge it, and the Knight then took a barrage of fire from Erika's Needler, the resulting supercombine explosion tearing it apart.

The other Knight Lancer didn't take kindly to this, and a full-strength Reflega spell from Erika just barely managed to stop the resulting shot. Shepard countered by sorta-copying the first Knight's methods, pulling off a Biotic Charge that carried him down the hallway in the blink of an eye to smash into the Knight, knocking it back and taking its shields out. Two point-blank Viper shots then took it down. He bent down and picked up the Forerunner sniper rifle, nodding appreciatively as he inspected it.

"Small clip size, but it packs one hell of a punch."

The others caught up, bringing with them the other Binary Rifle and its ammo. Shepard handed it to Zaeed, who nodded and slung it across his back alongside the Incisor already there. The team moved through the door, coming out into another large and open room that looked empty. When they were halfway across it, however, the ground began to tremble and shake for a few seconds, and a low-pitched alarm klaxon began to blare, the lights flashing red.

"_Alert! This is Cortana to all DDF personnel on-site!_" the Smart AI transmitted. "_The dimensional pocket this facility is in has just been set to collapse, with us still in it! All teams, get to the portal NOW!-!_"

(MUSIC: _Halo 4 _OST Vol. 2 – "Gravity")

A timer appeared on everyone's HUDs, counting down from six and a half minutes.

"…That's not good" Kaidan said.

"Everyone, move!" Shepard ordered urgently.

As the five rushed across the room, the far door opened to reveal a small Crawler pack. A pair of frag grenades from Zaeed cleared them out, and the team hurried through. The next room had three Knights, and a Watcher that had already set up a beam turret. Shepard immediately zapped the Watcher's shields with an Overload, and Kaidan took it down with a Reave. Zaeed used his Binary Rifle to destroy one of the Knights, while Tali sent out a Combat Drone to draw the turret's fire while she hacked into the hostile construct, forcing its volatile energies to backfire explosively, destroying it. Erika fired a Prism Rain attack, the multicolored bolts of offensive magic striking the two remaining Knights and weakening their shields; Kaidan and Shepard finished them off with SMG fire.

"_This is Group 1_" the Master Chief reported. "_We've reached the portal, but there's Prometheans coming fast behind us. We'll defend the portal for as long as we can; Groups 2 and 3, I'd appreciate it if you hurry up._"

The next hallway had a pair of Knights, one of them a 'Battlewagon' type, its back-mounted fins bristling as it readied its Scattershot. Shepard took it out with his Binary Rifle and zapped the other's shields with Overload, and Erika got in close and unleashed a Keyblade combo on the now-defenseless Knight, destroying it. The following room had three Watchers, a sizable Crawler pack, and two Lightrifle-wielding Knights, one of them a Lancer. Tali quickly used her Lightrifle to take out one of the Watchers trying to summon a turret, Shepard took out the second with an Overload/Warp combo, and Erika the third with a Thundaga spell. Kaidan tossed out a Singularity that grabbed several Crawlers and hoisted them helplessly into the air, and Zaeed used his Avenger to cut them down. Shepard Overloaded the Lancer's shields, and when it charged him he was ready, sidestepping its teleport strike and sticking it with a plasma grenade. The second Knight went down to Zaeed's Binary Rifle.

"_This is Group 3_" Sunset radioed. "_We're at the portal. Waiting on you, Shepard!_"

"We're moving as fast as we can, Shimmer" Shepard replied. "Eve's Prometheans aren't making it easy for us, but we're coming!"

The quintet moved as fast as they could, soon reaching one last large room that stood between them and the portal chamber. The room was occupied by another Crawler pack, two more Watchers, a beam turret, and three Knights, including a Commander type. The Knight leader fired its Incineration Cannon, and Group Shepard scattered. Shepard quickly Overloaded the big one's shields and then shot it twice with his Binary Rifle, destroying it. Zaeed used his own weapon to destroy the turret, as Erika rushed into the Crawler pack, carving through the droids with her Keyblade. Tali and Kaidan focused fire to bring one of the Knights down, while Shepard used a Charge/SMG combo to deal with the other one. The Watchers frantically tried to react, to restore the turret or the Knights, but were caught in Shepard's Singularity and taken out by his Warp destabilizing it, causing a Biotic explosion that tore the aerial droids apart.

At last, they hurried into the portal chamber, finding everyone else exchanging fire with Promethean forces coming out of the other two paths. The timer read 50 seconds. One more Knight Commander came rushing in, only to be shield-stripped by Kaidan and then take three Needle Rifle rounds to the face from Mariko that blew its head off. The Master Chief fired an Incineration Cannon he'd picked up along the way, destroying two shotgun-wielding Knights.

"Everyone, through the portal!" Cortana ordered as the controlled slipspace rift formed behind them.

The whole group backed through the portal as quickly as it could take them. The Chief, Teana, and Shepard were the last ones through, reappearing in the outside world just before the portal collapsed. 20 seconds later, the base rumbled slightly as the fabric of reality suffered mostly-harmless 'ripples' from the dimensional pocket's abrupt collapse. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief: they'd made it.

"The Dark Voice, pirates, the Flood, the Covenant, Eve…" Teana counted off. "It's like there's a giant neon sign calling all our enemies to this planet."

"And now Eve has Forerunner battle droids," Rainbow Dash said, "and she's seeking some Forerunner war criminal to help her in her human-extinction quest. As if she wasn't dangerous enough already…"

Marie then noticed something, bending down to inspect Erika, noticing the claw puncture sites and hand-shaped redness on her neck. She then wordlessly pulled her little sister into a hug. Once Sarah noticed the marks, she joined in quietly fussing over the girl.

"We should get back to base" Shepard said. "At the least, without their ship, the Covenant should be pretty much a non-factor after this. And I think Eve took what remained of her Promethean forces with her, wherever she went. And the Flood are still contained and almost totally wiped out. Let's go get some rest before the _next_ threat rears its head. …With our luck, it'll be a Reaper."

Everyone wearily headed out, climbing aboard the waiting dropships, as the _Vladivostok_ hovered above.

**-**_**CHAPTER END**_**-**

Don't worry; Shepard's wrong. No Reaper activity until Book 24.


	6. Fiends From The Shadows

SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR MOST DISCLAIMERS

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

**-**_**CHAPTER START**_**-**

**Nereid Sector, Hazred System, Al-Hazred**

**Day 9 – 11:35 Hours**

After last night's adventure, the scavenged Forerunner weapons were turned in to the _Starshot_'s R&D team and the ship's VI. The ship could not (yet) reproduce the weapons, but it _could_ craft ammunition for them. The scavenged guns would be distributed to a select few (Mariko, in particular, was quite taken with the Suppressor, using it to replace her old M7 SMG), with some of them held in reserve to be used as needed; thankfully, Teana had used _Kamui_ to snatch and store a fair number more of them than what had been carried and used in the field at the facility, and a lot of the extras were being used for study in the hopes of enabling the ship's auto-foundry to construct more of them.

Just this morning, Tychus Findlay had come over through the _Starshot_'s translocation system. According to him, Raynor and Valerian were trying to help Kerrigan find a place to hide, as Mengsk was redoubling his efforts to find her. In the meantime, a bored Tychus had decided to cross over and join the fun here.

Right now, Teana was leading Tychus, Sunset, Kyōsuke, Miyako, and Applejack on an Unversed-clearing mission, heading off a 'small' horde of the dark beings before they could hit the DDF base a few kilometers away. Kyōsuke's gauntlet-mounted weapons and Miyako's hammer made short work of the cannon fodder around them, with the two _Puellae_ occasionally combining their elemental powers to launch electrified ice spears at the more difficult and dangerous opponents. Tychus used his power-armored mass to bash and crush anything that got too close in-between gunning down targets with his rifle, Applejack displayed her surprising agility to accompany her bone-shattering strength as she darted about through the enemy dealing devastating blows, and Teana's twin Mirage Longswords sliced and stabbed anything within range.

Before long the area was clear, the last 'Flood' Unversed being crushed beneath Tychus' boot. Suddenly, everyone heard clapping from nearby. Standing atop a snow-covered mound of rock was a single man, and when Sunset saw him she froze, her pupils constricting. He was around 5'9", with shoulder-length messy black hair and grey eyes, slightly tanned skin and a moderately muscled build, wearing a black coat over a white shirt with charcoal-gray pants. He had a mocking smirk on his face, gold-colored eyes gleaming in the cloud-diluted sunlight.

"Not bad" he said. "Rather impressive, actually. It seems you've done well for yourself, Shimmer."

Hearing that, and looking at the human-form pony's reaction to this man's presence, it didn't take Teana very long.

"Damien Vox, I presume?" she said with a tone colder than the planet's poles, readying her energy blades.

"My reputation precedes me" the man replied. "My new 'employee' has told me a fair bit about you, Ms. Lanstar."

"Employee…" Her eyes widened, and then she pointed angrily. "You're the one who paid Terrence Albright to turn on us!"

"The boy doesn't quite know of everything I've done, and he doesn't care. All he knows is that I've paid him a few handsome sums of credits to do what I want a few times. The arrangement's worked out well for both of us so far. I've learned from him and from observation a few things about you, Lanstar… including that in a straight fight, you'd pound me into mulch in less than a minute. So I won't be fighting you if I can avoid it."

"What're ya doin' here, _murderer_?" Applejack growled out.

"Would you believe checking up on an old teammate?"

Sunset's aura flared to life like a small inferno, her eyes glowing with magical power and rage. She vanished in a teleport, and Vox barely managed to block in time as she reappeared with a fire-wreathed punch aimed at his face. Her face was twisted into a near-feral snarl, canine teeth bared and irises partially golden from Darkness just from how much murderous rage she had. She formed a cluster of Fire Arrows behind herself, all pointed at Vox, but he twisted out of her grasp and leapt away, narrowly dodging some bolts and intercepting others with his own Darkness blasts. He ran, shadow-teleporting out in a chain of short jumps, and Sunset pursued him, driven by the need to spill the blood of he who had taken so much from her.

"Damn it, Shimmer! Wait!"

The others followed as quickly as they could, but the teleportation ability of Sunset and her target allowed them to outpace Teana and company for the moment. Bolts of Fire and Darkness flew between the two as they moved further away, occasionally exchanging blows when they came out of teleports close enough to each other. Meanwhile, more Unversed began popping up in the others' path, slowing them down further.

There was a large explosion of fire and magical power. When the dust cleared, Sunset had Vox pinned to the ground, and he was using every ounce of strength he had to prevent her from driving a knife glowing with her power into his chest.

"Raw mana and Brian's blade," she snarled, "right through your twisted heart! Take it! Take it straight to Hell, you _sickening piece of shit!-!_"

Vox began to very slowly lose the match of strength, the knife inching ever closer to his chest. Suddenly, a black-clad leg kicked Sunset in the head from the side, sending her tumbling away. She righted herself just as Teana and the others caught up.

"About damn time…" Vox murmured.

"Eh, what can I say?" Xigbar replied. "I love a dramatic entrance."

"So you two know each other…" Teana said. "That figures."

"The Dark Voice's servant Kadak was the one with whom I made the deal for power years ago" Vox replied. "So long as the Fallen Xel'Naga and Master Xehanort remain allies, so too will their respective subordinates."

Sunset suddenly rushed in again, aiming to blow Damien's head off his shoulders, only to be batted away by the broad side of the massive blue weapon wielded by a second black-cloaked interloper. Saïx now stood alongside his two allies, emotionless gold eyes gazing out at the heroes.

"Hate to cut and run, folks," Xigbar said, "but we got some big stuff to do on the Dark Voice's new base world. We cooked up a present for ya, though! I tell ya, it took some doing to get this big guy right; the original one came from the Heart of someone with as much Darkness as the Boss, so we couldn't replicate it with any other Hearts. But then you guys fought that Witch Queen thing, and we realized that, hey, if she was made from multiple Heartless fused together, we could do the same thing! So we took a bunch of big ones, broke them down into their raw essences, and fused 'em together to make our very own Super-Heartless! Have fun, kids!" He looked at Tychus. "And not-kid. Sorry, big guy; I'm used to my enemies being teenagers."

Xigbar's usual grin then came back, as he snapped his fingers. He, Saïx, and Vox disappeared into dark portals, while a large dark portal appeared overhead. And then the big portal got bigger. And bigger. And then something began to emerge from it.

"Sweet mother of mercy…" Applejack and Tychus said together, craning their necks up.

"Uhh, base?" Teana radioed. "I think we're gonna need some backup."

"I… don't think my weapons can hurt that" Kyōsuke muttered.

"S-Same here" Miyako said.

Its massive footsteps shaking the earth, the 'Groundshaker' Heartless let out a deafening roar.

**-**_**Break**_**-**

At the nearest DDF base, people were scrambling, trying to salvage the situation. A kaiju-sized Heartless had appeared, and the only Keybladers on-world were busy with other assignments. Outside, one group that had just finished fighting off a small pack of Heartless now stood in the shadow of the UNSC _Vladivostok_, staring off into the distance in the direction of the fight. The A.I. amongst the group had shown them a satellite image of the Groundshaker.

"How are we supposed to fight something that big?-!" Trixie said.

"It's too close to Lanstar and her group for a MAC strike from the supercarrier" Garrus said. "This doesn't look good."

"And it's much too big for anything we have to do much more than tick it off…" Mami added.

"Everyone," Cortana said from within the Chief's armor, "the _Vladivostok_ has a solution. I've just received word that they're sending something down that should be able to tip the odds in our favor, something they just picked up before coming here, fresh off the assembly line."

"Probably some fancy super-gun, or a black-hole generator, or something else crazy…" Trixie murmured.

The supercarrier lowered to the other side of the base, dropping off something outside of the group's view. They hurried around the base, coming around almost right in front of the 'package'… and as they looked up (and up, and up…), Trixie and Mami's jaws dropped, and Garrus let out an appreciative whistle.

"Well…" Cortana said. "_Someone's _overcompensating."

**-**_**Break**_**-**

Teana swore as she flew to the side, a fireball the size of a tank impacting where she'd just been. This thing had tanked everything thrown at it so far. She was just about to break out the _Mangekyō _stuff when she and the others received a transmission:

"_Ground team, help is on the way. Hold out just a little longer._"

"About time!" Kyōsuke said as he blasted a few Scrappers with his gauntlet-mounted blaster, while Miyako bashed a Large Body in the face with her hammer.

"Well, it better be somethin' big!" Applejack said as she scrambled to avoid getting stepped on by one of the Groundshaker's gigantic feet. "This feller ain't goin' down easy!"

"Uh, I don't think that's gonna be a problem…" Sunset pointed at something coming up over a distant hill.

"Why d'ya reckon… that…" Tychus stared, eyes wide. "Holy… That thang's bigger than the Odin…"

In-between dodging attacks, Teana grinned. "Wow. It looks bigger in person. This should be good."

Rolling across the snow on six wheels each the size of a small house, a truly gigantic land vehicle, as big as a small ocean liner, made its presence known. The coilgun mounted on the top thrummed with power, as the UNSC Mammoth lined up its shot, facing the massive Heartless.

"Boom" the Master Chief said from within the Mammoth's control center.

A flash of light and a thunderous bang accompanied the hypersonic ferric-tungsten slug being fired, the air in its wake being converted to plasma as it pierced the Groundshaker's thick hide, punching a hole clean through the monster and soaring straight/up into space. The super-Heartless roared, stumbling about as it felt the effects of its new, grievous wound. A handful of rockets fired by the vehicle's top-mounted turrets then flew into the hole and detonated inside the beast's body, and that was enough to finish it off. The Groundshaker toppled over, fading away into Darkness particles as it hit the ground.

"_I'd say that's a successful field test of the Mammoth_" Cortana said over the radio. "_Hold on, team; we'll deploy a couple Warthogs to help you mop up the small fry._"

"_I love the smell of ozone from a big-ass gun firing in the morning_" Garrus remarked. "_Smells like victory…_"

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 9 – 17:30 Hours**

The seven _Puellae Magi _(well, six _Puellae _and one _Puer_)were patrolling together a ways outside the DDF's main base. There'd been a few possible sightings of Demons and/or of surviving Covenant forces. Miyako was amusing Sayaka, Kyōko, Kyōsuke, and Madoka by using her powers to create large, elaborate snow sculptures in seconds.

Suddenly, however, a powerful Dark presence was sensed. Everyone stopped what they were doing and went on high alert, looking in all directions. Soon, Sayaka pointed out a pair of approaching black-cloaked figures, one around 4'10" and the other 5'3". The smaller one pulled back her hood to reveal Ruin, and the _Puellae _immediately drew their weapons, glowering at her.

"My, my, such a chilly reception…" Ruin said.

"As to be expected from warriors of the Light" said the other figure, speaking with the voice of a young woman.

"What are you doing here?" Homura said coldly, having already drawn an M739 SAW from her arm-mounted device.

"Just showing Xehanort's new heavy hitter around" Ruin replied. "He picked her up a week or so ago, and she's just finished her training. Not that she needed much in the way of training when she found us, but every little bit helps."

"You can go now, Ruin" the girl said. "I'll head back after I've… introduced myself to these children."

"Hmph. Very well, Malia. Don't be long."

Ruin stepped out through a dark portal, leaving this 'Malia' girl alone against the seven _Puellae_. She lowered her hood, revealing shoulder-length black hair, slightly tanned skin, and corrupted gold eyes, along with a calm smirk. She focused her gaze on the pink-haired girl of the group.

"So you're Madoka Kaname…," she said, "the girl who broke the Incubators' cycle. I was expecting something a little more… imposing."

"Who are you?" Madoka asked.

The girl held out her hand, and an evil-looking broadsword formed in her grip with a burst of familiar-feeling magic. "My name is Malia Abbadia. And I am she whom the Incubators dubbed their 'greatest mistake'… well, until you came along and shattered their plans, that is."

Madoka, Sayaka, and Miyako gasped. "You're a _Puella Magi_?" Sayaka said.

Malia chuckled lightly. "Kyubey had no idea what he was dealing with when he 'recruited' me. His people sought girls of strong magical power with the potential for great Darkness in their Hearts. But he severely underestimated the amount of it in _my_ Heart, and he grossly misinterpreted what sort of Darkness it was. I saw the gift he gave me for what it was: a way for me to gain more power than I could have ever imagined beforehand. By the time he realized he'd made a mistake in empowering me, I had already hunted down and killed every other _Puella Magi_ within 100 kilometers of my territory, and stolen their power, their essence. He tried to forcibly reclaim what he had given me, but I overpowered him and banished him and his ilk from my realm. Then, I went hunting, absorbing the Darkness and strength from what Witches attempted to challenge me. But the increases in power were always miniscule, despite how strong my conquered foes were.

"And then it happened: I transformed. I reached a new level, becoming more than I once was, and became stronger than ever! Not long ago, Master Xehanort found me. And he showed me that, though I am leagues above the 'average' _Puella Magi_, he is stronger still. Upon defeating me he offered to take me as a disciple, a warrior of Darkness to carry out his will and in return gain the power and knowledge I need to become truly strong.

"Your Light makes you a threat to me, Kaname. That's why I will kill you. But not now, not yet. I am not ready. I merely come to introduce myself to you all at this time. So you will know the name…"

She tossed aside her black cloak.

"…of the Darkness that will one day eclipse you!"

She was wearing a tight, low-cut black shirt with a matching mid-thigh-length skirt, and knee-high boots. Above the start of her meager cleavage was a small black object set into her skin, a circular cage-like structure and a thin needle-like projection downward. Mami gasped.

"That's… a Grief Seed!"

"I-It can't be…" Miyako said. "She's… She's a Witch? A human-form Witch?"

"It's just like what happened to Xehanort and Scar…" Sayaka said with shock and revelation, as Malia's smirk turned into a fanged grin like a triumphant predator. "There's so much Darkness and evil in her Heart, that when she became a Witch – a Heartless – it enabled her to maintain her original mind and form!"

"That is correct" Malia said. "And thanks to that, and to Master Xehanort's tutelage, I can now summon and control Heartless, including 'Witches'. Perhaps a demonstration is in order…"

She channeled Dark power through her body, and two dark portals appeared on either side of her. From the portals emerged two girls, around 14 or 15 years old, bound by durable shackles of dark magic to two large solidified magic runes. Both had their heads and bodies hanging limp, seemingly unconscious, but were still breathing. And both had visible Soul Gems at different points of their body.

"_Puellae_…" Madoka murmured. "Let them go!"

Malia grinned, her hands wreathed in jet-black Dark magic, and then quickly placed her palms against the two captive girls' Soul Gems. The gems began to darken extremely rapidly, and the girls woke up immediately. However, they didn't even have time to scream before their now-wholly-corrupted Soul Gems shattered, reforming into Grief Seeds as twin pillars of Darkness enveloped them. Madoka's group stared in utter horror at the whole spectacle; Madoka, in particular, had somehow heard the girl's Hearts/souls screaming in terror and pain as they were swallowed up by the Darkness being forced upon them.

"I'll leave you these two to play with…" Malia said as she opened and stepped through a Dark Gateway.

(BATTLE MUSIC: _Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep _OST – "Unforgettable")

The twin masses of Darkness broke at the same time, revealing the two newly-formed Witch-type Heartless, both of them at least 30 feet in size. One hovered a few meters off the ground, lacking any legs to speak of, with a body like a giant cone pointed downward, and two large arms composed of different geometric shapes (complete with four 2D-triangle 'claws' coming from each perfect-sphere 'hand'), topped by a spherical head with two glowing square-shaped eyes and a frowning mouth like a jack-o-lantern's full of triangular 'teeth'. The other was more bestial in structure, with a muscular body, built like a gorilla or a bear, covered in thick black fur, and a head partially covered by a white skull-like mask with red markings above a mouth full of fangs.

The two Witches swung their claws down at the group, who scattered and then picked targets; Homura, Kyōsuke, and Sayaka targeted the Geometric Witch, while Mami, Kyōko, and Miyako made ready to fight the Bestial Witch, and Madoka prepared to divide her focus between both. Mami made the first strike, a barrage of summoned magic-musket shots that smashed into the Bestial Witch, pushing it back a little. It withstood the barrage, and then growled as it swung a paw with four large bony claws at her with surprising speed. Miyako, though, diverted the strike with a hammer to the wrist, and then conjured & fired a wave of Ice Spears at the beast's lower torso, sticking it in the stomach; it roared, knocking the spears out with its paws. It then took a pink magic arrow to the head that barely missed its eye; growling, it made ready to charge at Madoka, only for Kyōko to hit it with a magic-charged kick to the head that left a crack in the skull-mask.

A wave of Fire-type _Sagitta Magica _impacted the Geometric Witch at several points, leaving noticeable scorch marks. Homura's attack was followed by two electrified grenades fired by Kyōsuke's wrist-mounted launcher, explosive force and electrical energy stunning and wounding the large Heartless. It swung its claw at Kyōsuke from the side, only to be blocked by Sayaka, the girl using both hands to press her sword back against the force. Homura leapt up, time freezing, and when she reappeared a trio of plasma grenades went off at the shoulder joint of the Geometric Witch's right arm, blowing it off and relieving Sayaka of her burden. The creature shrieked and then tried to swing its remaining arm at Homura, but took a _Fūton: Shinkū Taigyoku _to the face from Madoka, knocking it back.

Then the two Witches looked to each other for a few seconds, and then they both rushed at Madoka with startling speed, bypassing the others entirely. Homura swore as she realized her time-stop function was still recharging for a few more seconds, seconds that Madoka didn't have. Madoka closed her eyes, bracing herself, as she held her flower-themed bow out in front while casting a Shield spell… and, when the beasts got close, the spell suddenly became much stronger, launching them back, as a pulse of pink light emitted from Madoka, or more specifically from her weapon.

When the light faded, Madoka's bow had transformed. It now had a handle with a guard going around it made to look like a thorny branch. The shaft led straight out to the now-flattened flower, the 'petals' of which now looked rather sharp. The other _Puellae_ felt mild shock as they quickly recognized the profile of the new weapon.

"Another Keyblade…" Sayaka murmured. "And this time, it's one of our group…"

Madoka stood still for several seconds, 'feeling' the magic that her new weapon was made from and how it was inextricably linked to her. Then she opened her eyes with a determined expression on her face, and took a stance, both hands gripping the weapon's handle and holding it pointed diagonally downward as a ball of pink light built up at the tip. Then she held the weapon high, and the sphere of power erupted into a sizable barrage of arrow-bolts that bombarded both Witches, pushing them back and doing respectable damage. Then she picked her target, flash-stepping in and standing beside Homura as the Geometric Witch righted itself.

"You girls okay?" Madoka asked Mami's group as the Bestial Witch got to its feet as well.

"We're cool" Kyōko replied. "You can help us kill ours after you finish the other one off."

"'Kay."

Several cone-shaped dark magic blasts came flying at Madoka, who back-flipped and then flash-stepped to the side to avoid them. The Geometric Witch then used its remaining arm to shield its face from blaster-fire from Kyōsuke's gauntlet-mounted weapon. Sayaka charged her sword with magic and then swung it several times in the Witch's direction, each swing releasing a slicing wave of magic that cut into the monster's body, leaving long gashes and weakening it further. Homura leapt high, incanting and casting _Incendium Gehennae_, the dark flames erupting with the Witch at the center; the Heartless screeched as it burned. Finally, when the flames faded to reveal the scorched and weakened Witch, Madoka came in with a falling strike with her new Keyblade that sealed the deal. The Witch fell, coming apart into Darkness particles as it hit the ground, leaving a Grief Seed in its place.

Meanwhile, the Bestial Witch wasn't faring too much better. Kyōko's polearm had managed to trim its claws, and Miyako had landed several hammer blows that had ice spread out from the impact points, leaving the beast slowed down by frost clinging to its body. Now, Kyōko leapt up, using her spear to cut a gash across the Witch's throat; it groaned and held one paw to the wound as Darkness particles leaked from its neck. Miyako was next, dealing a blow to the head from the side that finally shattered the weakened skull-mask, leaving the Heartless' black-furred, red-eyed face bare. And then it felt the barrel of a very large gun resting against the back of its neck.

"_Tiro Finalé_!"

Mami's point-blank blast severed the Witch's head from its shoulders. The body and head toppled to the ground separately, unmoving and already dissipating into Darkness particles. When it was done, Mami retrieved the Grief Seed. The seven _Puellae_ then met in the middle.

"Malia Abbadia…" Homura murmured. "A Witch who retained her human mind and form due to the strength of her evil, and can forcibly trigger a _Puella Magi_'s transformation into a Witch… She is going to be very dangerous."

"And she's Xehanort's new lackey" Kyōko added. "Who knows what else he'll teach her?"

"On the bright side," Sayaka said, "we have another Keyblade. Let's see, that's Madoka, Sora, Riku, Kairi's in training right now, Lea, Master Yen-Sid, King Mickey, Aqua, the Testarossa Triplets, Kanba, and Erika."

"While the enemy has Ruin and the four Xehanorts" Mami replied. "We may have more, but theirs seem to be more powerful and skilled than most of ours."

"We need to let the others know about all this" Madoka said. "Let's head back to base."

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 9 – 20:05 Hours**

Another force of Heartless had been detected making their way for the DDF's eastern base. The Harmony Element bearers, along with Trixie, had volunteered to go out and take care of it. Now as they made their way across the snow, protected from the cold by a minor spell from Twilight and by their natural fur coats, they saw the 'small' horde of Heartless marching toward them up ahead. However, they were being led by a black-cloaked figure that was obviously quadrupedal, and around their size. When the two groups met in the middle, the Heartless standing back at their leader's mental command, the dark figure telekinetically lowered her hood.

"My, my…" the dark unicorn said, gold eyes gleaming in the dark of the night. "Fancy meeting you all here."

"Checker…" Twilight growled, tensing up and readying a Fire spell. The other girls reacted similarly negatively, getting ready to fight while Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity formed a defense around and in front of Trixie. They'd all heard the stories by now of what this mare had done in the past (as had most of the others; Trixie's mother Morrigan had been furious upon learning what her niece had done to her daughter over the years, and Nixie, Pixie, & Cirrus hadn't taken it much better).

"This is a marvelous opportunity" Checker said. "Master Xehanort will reward me handsomely if I can manage to neutralize even just one of the Elements of Harmony."

"You really think it'll be that easy?" Rainbow Dash snapped.

"Yes, featherduster, I do."

Rainbow snarled at the usage of the racial slur and tensed up, ready to pounce. But then a hoof was held out in front of her, holding her back. Trixie stepped forward, slow and steady, as an aura of ki/chakra sprang up around her. Her _Raiton no Yoroi_ followed, and she opened her eyes, calmly glaring at her wicked cousin. "Girls," she said, "handle the Heartless."

"Trixie, are you sure about this?" Twilight asked, concerned. 

"I can't run from her forever, Twilight. Even if I'm terrified of her, I'll never be able to move on with my life if I don't confront her."

"But you still don't have your magic back!"

"Then I'll be relying on what chakra-based techniques I've learned so far."

"Foolish bravery won't make the end result any different, cousin" Checker smirked. "Don't worry, though; I won't kill you. I'll just cripple you, and let you watch as I rip the Hearts right out of your friends' bodies."

(BATTLE MUSIC: _Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix _OST – "The 13th Reflection")

"You've always been so confident in your superiority, Checker" Trixie said. "But I've become much more than the helpless little filly you used to torment. I can finally put a stop to all the pain you've caused, to me and to others. It's time I bury the demons of my past." Her Lightning Armor pulsed, arcs of electricity racing across it. "And that means _you're_ going six feet under!"

She used _Raijū Bashiri no Jutsu_, the two lightning hounds racing toward Checker. The dark unicorn stopped them with a Shield spell, quietly surprised by how the shield was almost broken through ('No, that can't be right' she thought. 'Trixie isn't that strong'). Then Trixie herself followed through, her Lightning Armor giving her the speed to close in before Checker could react and the strength to shatter her weakened shield and strike her directly; Checker's last-moment reinforcement of her body with defensive magic was the only thing that saved her from broken bones as she was sent tumbling back. She skidded to a stop on her hooves, growling.

"So you _have_ gotten stronger" she said. "That makes you a threat. And it also means I don't have to hold back on you anymore!"

Checker conjured a barrage of metal javelin-spears and fired them at Trixie, who dodged most of them and slapped the last one aside. Trixie then charged in as Checker's own dark aura flared, the two meeting in the middle with a clash. Meanwhile, the Heartless accompanying Checker attacked the Element-Bearers, who quickly got into the swing of things, working together to take the dark creatures down. Twilight took out three Soldiers with a concussive fire blast, while Rainbow Dash sent Armored Knights flying like bowling pins as she flitted about. AJ, Fluttershy, and Pinkie busied themselves with Shadows. Rarity was unable to use her Earth affinity, as this planet's ground was buried beneath dozens or hundreds of feet of snow and ice, so she relied on basic spells and physical strikes; fortunately, her insistence on staying in peak physical condition, along with her partial Earth-Pony heritage, meant she was plenty strong enough to pull off the latter.

'All the same…' she thought, 'I should invest in some gems laced with my energy, like what that Gaara boy does with his sand. It would certainly come in handy in situations like this.'

The duel between cousins continued. However, now that Checker was fighting with full strength, Trixie was not doing as well as she'd hoped. Sure, she'd landed a few good blows (and even without _Raiton no Yoroi_, Trixie's natural passive strength-enhancement magic, the kind all ponies had to some degree, was high enough to bring her strength well past the Unicorn average and up to mid-high Earth Pony levels), but they failed to do any serious damage due to Checker's own magic and Darkness, and Checker's return attacks left Trixie reeling. It seemed that even with the training with chakra manipulation she'd undergone, which according to Lanstar left her at 'mid-_Chūnin_-level power' presently, it just wasn't enough against a powerful dark mage like Checker.

"It seems I was mistaken in thinking you a real threat to me" Checker said with an evil grin, her dark aura flickering around her as she stared at the panting, wounded Trixie. "No matter how much you train, you're still a magic-less, talentless weakling. I'll enjoy breaking you, my little toy, and then rebuilding you the way _I_ want to. You'll be my little doll, to play with and twist as I see fit, for the rest of your wretched existence; I'll keep you on my shelf, next to the heads of the Bearers! …Just give up, Trixie. You'll never be able to accomplish anything worthwhile on your own. Admit your worthlessness and pledge yourself as my property, and _maybe_ I'll show mercy by making their suffering quick."

Trixie trembled, her spirits falling and her Lightning Armor fading away as the old terror and hopelessness that Checker always inspired in her took hold again. Maybe Checker was right; what good was she? She no longer had magic, and all her training looked to have been for nothing. Suddenly feeling rather cold, she opened her mouth to speak.

"Don't say it, Trixie!"

Trixie snapped to attention, finding Twilight running in to stand at her side. A few seconds later the other Bearers joined, having finished off the Heartless.

"Don't think for even a _second_ that you're alone here, Trixie" Twilight said.

"No-one does everything alone" Pinkie said. "That's why they have friends to help them! And that's what we are!"

"You were willing to fight to protect us" Rarity said. "That proves the strength of the bonds you've forged with us."

"You've made mistakes in your life, but you've moved past them" Fluttershy said. "And you've become a better pony."

"Don't you worry 'bout us, sugarcube" Applejack said. "We got yer back, just like you got ours."

"Yeah, so let's kick this psycho's ass together!" Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight put a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "We're here for you."

A small smile formed on Trixie's face. "Thank you…" she whispered. Then she glared at Checker, taking a step forward.

"I can't do anything on my own," she said, "but I don't need to! That's why these girls are in my life! I don't have to be afraid of you anymore, because these girls protect me, just as I protect them!" The air around her wavered with power. "It doesn't matter if I don't have my magic! My friends are my power! Because _friendship __**is**__ magic!-!_"

And the dam finally broke. Renewed confidence, renewed purpose, and a completed shift in life outlook culminated in a burst of mana as Trixie's psychosomatic block was utterly demolished by the Light of her Heart. A flood of magical power flowed through and around her, an aura of magical energy surging to life, blowing away the snow she stood on and bathing her nearby friends in warmth. Now that her chakra was controlled and tamed, the magical power it blocked back when it was uncontrolled & untapped flowed more freely than ever, only slightly below Twilight in power. Speaking of which, her Lightning Armor came back as well, now even stronger with her magic supporting it. Finally, there was a flash of light on her flank, which faded to reveal a star-tipped wand over a six-pointed star just like Twilight's.

"H-How?" Checker murmured. "How?-! You were broken!"

"And these girls fixed me" Trixie replied. "Thanks to them, I'll not be broken again. I am not the 'Great and Powerful' shameless braggart who insults others to hide her own insecurities. I am not the helpless little foal you amused yourself with over the years. I am Trixie, and I am not your toy any longer!"

In a burst of speed, she appeared right in front of Checker, dealing a lightning-fast blow that sent her hurtling backward, tumbling to a stop in the snow well over a hundred feet away. Her face was bloodied, her leg wounded from the tumble, and she had a feral look in her eyes. Trixie, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight charged, ready to take her down, and Checker began to panic as she realized what she was up against.

Suddenly, a Dark Portal formed. The three ponies bounced off a Bubble Shield that sprang up around Checker. The Meta stepped through the portal, grabbed hold of the wounded Checker, and immediately pulled her through the dark gateway, which closed behind them. The other girls ran to catch up to the trio.

"Looks like The Meta doesn't wanna lose his battle partner" Pinka said through Pinkie. "I bet she'll be pissed."

"Nah, she was scared of us" Dash replied. "I could see it in her eyes that she knew she was in deep trouble."

The six Bearers suddenly felt magic grab hold of them, telekinetically pulling them to Trixie for a group hug that they eagerly returned.

"Come on, girls" Twilight said. "Let's head back."

"Yeah, we need to put together Trixie's 'Congratulations On Getting Your Magic Back And Earning A New Cutie Mark' party!" Pinkie said.

"I'll take a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, please" Trixie said. "Think you can handle that, Pinkie?"

"One chocoriffic cake comin' right up! I'll even throw in chocolate ice cream, too!"

"Just save some fer the rest of us" AJ said with a grin to Trixie.

Trixie made a theatric gasp, holding a hoof to her heart. "Why Applejack, you honestly think I would be so gluttonous and selfish as to have the entire cake to myself? …Well, you might be right. Buuut I guess I can share if I _have_ to…"

AJ simply chuckled and pulled Trixie in for a noogie.

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 10 – 09:00 Hours**

**DDF Primary Base**

A sizable group of people were gathered in the main room of the base. Even Zeratul was present, having recently helped wipe out the very last of the Flood in the now-no-longer-infested Forerunner structure out east. Trixie's 'little' celebration had pulled in a fair number of people last night, as usual for a Pinkie Pie Party. Right now, things seemed peaceful; word had it that a few Covenant survivors were holed up in the southeast, but they were being left alone for now until a plan could be come up with to deal with them with minimal casualties or collateral damage to the Forerunner facility they were camped near.

"So what next?" Vita wondered.

"I guess we just keep searching for anything that can help us" Teana replied. "Wait for an enemy to show themselves, or whatever."

"Yeah, like one's just gonna pop out of nowhere into our laps" Kyōko said.

Just then, however, a magic-based portal formed in the middle of the room. Out of it ran Terrence Albright, scorch marks on his Barrier Jacket. The roars of angry Brutes were heard on the other side of the portal, a few plasma bolts passing through (thankfully not hitting anyone). Frantic, he forced the portal closed, gasping for breath.

"Shit, that was close" he said.

And then he noticed where he was, recognizing the people surrounding him, who were now drawing their weapons.

"Is it…too late to go back and take my chances with the Brutes?" he said.

"Eeeyup" Applejack replied, pounding one hoof into the other.

"Hello, Terrence" Teana said with a scowl, an equally-unhappy Sunset standing beside her.

"Uh… H-Hey there, Tia! Fancy running into you here, eh?" He chuckled nervously as he slowly backed away toward a wall. "I… D-Did you enjoy my little practical joke?"

"Erika took it worse than I did. First time I've ever heard her swear."

The little girl in question was leaning against the back of a couch, glaring daggers at Terrence.

"So, Mr. Albright…" Sunset hissed as she slowly advanced on him. "An old 'acquaintance' of mine, Damien Vox, mentioned that you're his employee now."

"O-Oh yeah, Mr. Vox! Ha, ha! Yeah, he's p-paid me to do a few things for him, and stuff, and thing-stuff."

"You wouldn't happen to know where he and his superiors might be now, would you?" Teana said, joining Sunset in boxing Terrence in.

"U-Um… p-p-possibly?" he squeaked out, as he noticed a few others starting to approach as well. "I-It's confidential, though, y'see – very important stuff, and it's not good business to rat out the guy w-who… Y-You don't _really_ need to know this kinda stuff, really; I'm sure they aren't planning anything bad! I-I mean, it's not like you haven't-"

Sunset lunged forward, pinning him to the wall with one hand and drawing her Lancer in the other. "Enough babbling! Where is Damien Vox?-!"

"I-I don't-"

She telekinetically revved the chainsaw bayonet and held it to his head. "_WHERE IS HE?-!_"

Terrence was freaking out, sweat pouring down his pale face. "Ulnar!" he said. "Planet Ulnar, in the Dark Voice's home realm! That's where he's decided to make his home base! He's making Hybrids there! That's where he and Vox and Xehanort and all the rest of them are now! Please don't kill me!"

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" Teana said as she grabbed him and flung him to the side. "Now go sit in the corner."

"Ulnar…" Zeratul said. "The same distant, shadowed world seen in the Overmind's apocalyptic vision…"

"So now we finally have a target" Teana said. "Do we have the coordinates for that world?"

"I do" the Dark Templar replied.

"Then we should inform the COs so we can depart at once. If he's making Hybrids, we may not have much time."

**-**_**SCENE BREAK**_**-**

**Day 10 – 12:05 Hours**

The TSAB had arrested Terrence, who was being shipped back to Midchilda, headed for court-martial, discharge, and probably imprisonment for being bought out by the enemy. The fleet made ready to depart, with a few more ships planning to meet them there.

"We're coming up on the final battles" Teana said as she sat on her bed, Subaru massaging her bare shoulders from behind. "You ready for this?"

"If you are, I am" Subaru replied. "Once we're through, this whole thing will be _done_."

She punctuated her last word by cupping and lightly squeezing Teana's bare assets, causing the redhead to gasp lightly and then look back at her partner.

"Well, we _do_ have about four hours…" Subaru said with a sly tone.

Teana responded by leaning back against the other girl with a happy little sigh as her hands started to roam.

In orbit, the fleet of warships spun up their FTL drives and vanished into slipspace, bound for the place where everything would end.

**-**_**BOOK 20 END**_**-**

It may be a little while, but look for Book 21, Spark of Hope, in the Nanoha/StarCraft crossover section. And rest assured, Book 21 will not be the last of this series; I have at least four more after it planned, as well as a planned rewrite of Book 2.

See ya soon!


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